2022 will be the warmest year on record for the UK, the Met Office has said.
The average temperature for the year is on track to beat the previous all-time high of 9.88C set in 2014, provisional data shows.
The exact figure will be confirmed in the new year.
Dr Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre, said: "2022 is going to be the warmest year on record for the UK.
"While many will remember the summer's extreme heat, what has been noteworthy this year has been the relatively consistent heat through the year, with every month except December being warmer than average.
"The warm year is in line with the genuine impacts we expect as a result of human-induced climate change.
"Although it doesn't mean every year will be the warmest on record, climate change continues to increase the chances of increasingly warm years over the coming decades."
A sequence of heatwaves starting in June led to the UK experiencing its fourth warmest summer on record, while temperatures broke the 40C mark for the first time, hitting a new record of 40.3C on 19 July at Coningsby in Lincolnshire.
The hot spell in July saw the Met Office issue its first ever red warning for extreme heat.
Wales also recorded a new daily maximum temperature record of 37.1C, while Scotland saw a new record of 34.8C.
The Met Office said all four seasons in 2022 were in the top 10 warmest on record for the UK.
Winter was eighth warmest, spring the fifth, summer the fourth and autumn the third.
Dr McCarthy added: "2022 has been dominated by higher than average temperatures. The record-breaking temperatures in July have certainly boosted the overall temperature values for the year, but that isn't the full story.
"Temperatures have been above the 1991-2020 long term average for a large proportion of the year, and this is something that we can anticipate as we become increasingly affected by climate change.
"Met Office science has shown that the temperatures witnessed in mid-July would have been extremely unlikely in the pre-industrial period - the era before humanity started emitting lots of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.
"However, as we have seen in the first two weeks of December, our climate is still subject to notable cold spells during the winter season, but our observational data show these have generally become less frequent and less severe as our climate warms."
Mike Childs, head of policy, science and research at Friends of the Earth, said: "It's no surprise that the UK has had its hottest year on record following the extreme heatwaves this summer.
"What is surprising is that the Government is failing so badly to act on climate change.
"It's granted permission for a new coal mine in Cumbria, given the fossil fuel companies tax breaks to extract more oil and gas, and failed to properly invest in home insulation despite sky-high energy bills and millions of people in fuel poverty.
"Our climate is in crisis, people are suffering across the world and governments need to start taking this seriously."
