Six of the ten longest growing seasons have occurred within the last 30 years
During the last 10 years the 'plant' growing season, according to the Central England Temperature (CET) record, has been on average 29 days longer than the reference climatology period 1961-1990, according to Met Office figures released on World Meteorological Day [23 March, 2016].
The Met Office records the length of the growing season as part of a set of UK climate statistics based on temperature. The CET record is the longest continuous temperature record in the world with monthly temperatures back to 1659 and a daily series back to 1772 allowing us to look at the growing season length over several centuries.