Scotland’s weather: Summer over as storms arrive

What we can expect: Heavy rain and strong winds are expected sweep across Scotland from today. Picture: Neil Hanna

SCOTLAND’S Indian Summer will come to an abrupt end today, with thunderstorms set to hit the country throughout this week.

After days of basking in unseasonal sunshine, autumn is set to arrive with a vengeance – bringing nearly half a month’s worth of rain in just a few hours, which could cause some localised flooding.

Heavy downpours and lower temperatures are expected from today, and the Met Office has issued a yellow warning for the north-east, particularly Angus and Aberdeenshire.

Forecaster Mike Reading said yesterday that a band of potentially heavy rain was due to push northwards and was due to reach southern Scotland by dawn today.

The way we were: scenes like this seem to be over for 2015. Picture: Ian Rutherford

He added: “It will remain breezy through the day on Monday with the rain continuing northwards. Behind this it will be further showers with some drier interludes.

“It is forecast the weather will remain unsettled through Tuesday and Wednesday with showers and longer spells of rain, with the risk of thunder.”

He said that while Thursday was expected to be more settled, with some fine, dry conditions, the remnants of Hurricane Joaquin – which has wreaked havoc across the Atlantic – could hit the north-west of the country by Friday, bringing gale force winds to Scotland.

Mr Reading said: “We have seen the last of the dry, sunny days for a while. The high pressure which has been dominating the weather for the last week is going to slip away. Low pressure will come in, bringing with it heavy rain and high winds.

“The worst affected will be Angus, Aberdeenshire and Tayside, although later in the week it will hit the northern isles, which will get high winds gusting to 50-60mph.

“We have had a nice dry week and suddenly we are going to see some wet, windy weather. I think the public will notice the difference.

“Autumn will really arrive from Monday. On Tuesday the worst affected area will be the north-east of Scotland, where up to 1.5in (40mm) is expected. The monthly average for October is 3.5in.”