England's east has gained 200 hours of sunshine a year. The west has barely moved.

2026 was a record sunny year for southern England, not for Britain. Behind it sits a 35-year split, with the east brighter, warmer and drier and the west wetter, and drought moving south-east.

I live on Dartmoor, where this year has been strange. January and February were the wettest in the 36-year reanalysis record for the grid cell over Princetown. Then the rain stopped. From 1 March to mid-October the moor had 278 mm, against a typical 496 mm: the driest such stretch in the same record. Reservoirs across the South West are below 40%, and South West Water has applied for a drought order on top of the hosepipe ban.

The same high pressure that switched off the rain switched on the sun. Princetown has just had its sunniest summer in 36 years. That set me wondering whether 2026 was Britain's sunniest year on record.

It isn't. And the reason why turned into a bigger story than the record itself.