ECHOES OF THE LAST MIND

ORIGIN: https://www.yourweather.co.uk/news/

As the year draws to a close, the National Trust has warned of the damage wreaked on nature by extreme weather, including fires that undid painstaking conservation work.

Abergwesyn Common, Powys, where a huge blaze destroyed peat restoration work

Extreme weather swings in 2025 pushed nature to its limits, putting wildlife and landscapes under severe pressure, according to the National Trust.

The year started with storm Éowyn, which resulted in the worst storm damage in decades in Northern Ireland, toppling tens of thousands of trees, from Crom in Fermanagh to Mount Stewart in the Ards Penninsula.

The sunniest spring on record was also the warmest, at 1.4°C above the norm. It was the driest spring in more than a century for England.

Summer featured four heatwaves, a peak of 35.8°C in Kent, and rainfall at just 42% of normal levels in southern England.

Smaller streams ran dry, and rivers and reservoirs fell to dangerouly low levels, while baked landscapes contributed to the UK’s worst fire season, with more than 47,000 hectares burned.

There were major blazes at National