Unseasonal weather hits record books

Edinburgh and the Lothians had one of the warmest Christmas Days on record this year.

The unseasonably mild weather saw temperatures only half a degree short of breaking the 115-year-old record for the warmest Christmas Day. A high of 15.6C was recorded in Leith in 1896.

Yesterday, Aberdeen topped the temperature charts at 15.1C – above Barcelona’s 14C. But amid the balmy temperatures the Met Office issued amber weather warnings, with gale force winds of up to 100mph forecast across the Northern Isles.

Met Office forecaster Dave Clark said: “We’ve got a band of south-westerly winds just now. They’re coming all the way from the Azores and these are the winds that we get during the summer, which give us really fantastic weather.”

He added that the coming week would see the weather changing between mild and cold in the run up to New Year.