LONDON - Warm and dry weather conditions made this summer the joint hottest on record in England - tying with 2018 - and it was the first to see temperatures climb above 40 deg C.

Overall, the United Kingdom has seen just 62 per cent of its summer rainfall, and mean temperatures 1.1 deg C above the average of 14.6 deg C, according to provisional statistics from the country's Met Office.

Provisional statistics show this was the fourth-warmest summer for the entire UK in a series that runs from 1884.

"For England to achieve its joint warmest summer takes more than extreme heat over a couple of days," said Dr Mark McCarthy, a science manager at the National Climate Information Centre. "We shouldn't forget that we experienced some persistently warm and hot spells through June and August, too."

Vast swathes of the country were put into "drought" status last month as its famously green lawns and fields turned yellow and the government allowed farmers to graze preserved lands to cope with shortages of fodder and forage crops linked to the lack of rainfall.

Man-made climate change made the heatwave that broke temperature records in July at least 10 times likelier, according to scientists.

In England, the mean temperature for the summer was 17.1 deg C, the joint warmest ever recorded, and the sixth driest, with areas in the east more impacted.

This was the eighth warmest summer for both Scotland and Wales, and the 12th warmest for Northern Ireland. BLOOMBERG