Updated: 2026-09-26
The warmest decade at the measurement point nearest to Glasgow was the decade of the 2000s, with an average temperature of 10.08 °C.
Mean annual temperature across the decade 2000–2009, the highest of any decade in the record
Glasgow itself has no long-running official weather station, so the closest reliable measurement point is the station at Paisley, in Renfrewshire, sitting at 32 m of altitude and about 11.4 km from the city. Every figure on this page comes from that station, and it is worth saying plainly: local differences in altitude, exposure, or distance from the Clyde can make the actual city weather differ slightly from what Paisley records. What you get here is the best available reference, not a perfect proxy.
Across the full span of complete annual records — 1914 to 2010 — one decade stands clear of the rest. In the 2000s, the average temperature reached 10.08 °C, the warmest decade in the entire series. The next closest, the 1990s, averaged 9.62 °C. That single decade at the top edge of the century also happens to be the most recent full decade in the dataset, which fits the wider pattern of a warming climate — but the number is what matters, and 10.08 °C is the headline.
The record does not climb in a straight line. It dips and recovers. The 1910s, the earliest partly covered decade, averaged 8.82 °C from the data available. The 1920s warmed to 8.99 °C. By the 1930s and 1940s, the station recorded 9.4 °C in each of those two decades. The 1950s held close behind at 9.37 °C. Then came a cooler stretch: the 1960s fell to 8.93 °C, and although the 1970s recovered to 9.26 °C, the 1980s slipped back to 9.14 °C.
From the 1990s onward, the trend lifts sharply. The 1990s averaged 9.62 °C — already the second-warmest decade in the series up to that point — and the 2000s pushed above it to 10.08 °C. The final row in the record, the 2010s, covers only a partial set of observations, so it should not be read as a full decade and is left out of the ranking below.
| Decade | Mean temperature (°C) | Days observed |
|---|---|---|
| 1910 | 8.82 | 1825 |
| 1920 | 8.99 | 3651 |
| 1930 | 9.4 | 3652 |
| 1940 | 9.4 | 3653 |
| 1950 | 9.37 | 3650 |
| 1960 | 8.93 | 3652 |
| 1970 | 9.26 | 3652 |
| 1980 | 9.14 | 3653 |
| 1990 | 9.62 | 3287 |
| 2000 | 10.08 | 3653 |
| 2010 | 8.61 | 365 |
The 2000s stand 0.46 °C above the 1990s on the raw record — a meaningful jump for a climate series held at one station. The two decades at the top of the ranking, the 2000s and the 1990s, are also the two most recent complete decades in the dataset. Older warm spells exist: the 1930s and 1940s both managed 9.4 °C, and the 1950s came in at 9.37 °C. But none of them reached the level of the 2000s.
It is worth pausing on the 1910s figure. The mean of 8.82 °C is based on a partial decade, 1825 days of observations rather than the roughly 3650 that a full ten-year window contains. The same caution applies to the 2010s row, which reflects only 365 observed days. Those two edges of the table are incomplete and should not be compared directly against the fully observed decades.
Across the decades with essentially complete coverage — the 1920s through the 2000s — the spread runs from 8.93 °C in the 1960s to 10.08 °C in the 2000s. That is the range in which the real climate signal sits for this part of Scotland: a mild, maritime regime with relatively narrow swings between individual decades, but a clear upward tilt in the most recent ones.
A single warm summer or a single hard winter can dominate a year's figure and tell you almost nothing about climate. Averaging across a whole decade smooths out that noise and shows the underlying direction. For Paisley, that direction points upward in the last two complete decades of the series. The 10.08 °C average of the 2000s is the clearest single statement the record makes about where this part of Scotland's weather has been heading.
If you are planning anything outdoors around Glasgow and want a realistic sense of temperature, the decade record is a reasonable starting point — with the caveat that Paisley's own site conditions apply, not those of any particular street or hillside in the city.
Source: Met Office MIDAS archive. Station: Paisley (Renfrewshire). Period covered: 1914–2010. Data available under the Open Government Licence.
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