Scotland's weather: Scots bask in record mini-heatwave

Revellers from Airdrie enjoying the sun on Ayr beach. Picture: SWNS

The mercury soared in locations across the country yesterday as Aboyne, in Aberdeenshire, reached 27.2C, with Edinburgh hitting 24C ahead of this weekend’s Edinburgh marathon.

Glasgow also experienced a rising temperature, with 23.4C recorded on Thursday afternoon.

Experts have since predicted the skyrocketing temperatures could break May records in some areas today, with parts of the country forecast to be as warm as 30C.

The current record for May heat is 30.9C, recorded in Inverailort in the Highlands in 2012.

However, the ‘mini-heatwave’ is only expected to last until Saturday afternoon, as rain and thunderstorms move across the UK, cooling temperatures down for Sunday and later next week.

Temperatures in Edinburgh peaked at 24.1C on Thursday afternoon, with revellers congregating on Portobello beach and in Princes Street Gardens to enjoy the sunshine as the capital surpassed temperatures in Lanzarote and Cape Town, while Glasgow Green was swamped with people soaking up the sunshine.

People on Ayr beach enjoy some hot weather as temperatures hit 27c in parts of Scotland. Picture: SWNS

A Met office spokesperson said: “The reason for the warm weather is an area of high pressure out towards the east of the UK.

“It’s allowing warm and humid air to be dragged up from the south, helping temperatures climb high.

“Through this evening there won’t be a great deal of change, plenty of evening sunshine and it is going to stay quite warm.

“It should be a mild and humid start to Friday and temperatures should do well again, getting into the mid to high 20s, perhaps even as high as 30C across parts of Scotland.”

The soaring temperatures come just a month after Edinburgh suffered its driest April on record as a paltry 4mm of rain fell at the Royal Botanic Garden - the lowest level of rain since records began in 1959.

However, the Met Office warned a series of severe downpours and thunderstorms was set to follow the warm spell, hitting the west coast first before moving across the rest of the country.

Temperatures are expected to drop down to an average of 21C on Sunday before falling again on Monday to around 18C.