Scotland set to be hotter than Portugal today

Edinburgh and Glasgow will experience highs of 25C by this afternoon, setting a trend for temperatures of more than 20C for the rest of the working week.

Meanwhile, places where you might expect to go on holiday like Lisbon and Porto remain in the lower 20s.

Weather is best in the East

While the morning and early afternoon in Scotland has been cloudy in parts, it looks set to get sunnier throughout the day, leading to a bright and warm evening.

The Met Office said that the East coast, including Edinburgh and Aberdeenshire, will get the best of the warm Scottish weather.

The west will be cloudier, but still warm.

And the warm weather will be present across the whole of the country, with temperatures in the Highlands also rising above the mid-20s.

Thunderstorms are predicted for the night time, with a chance of a heavy downpour, although temperatures will remain above 17C.

The wet weather will move from the south of the country in Dumfries and Galloway up north over the course of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Thunderstorms predicted

Showers are expected to continue throughout the week, although the heavier ones will have moved north beyond Scotland by Wednesday lunchtime, according to the Met Office.

The temperature is soaring due to a plume of hot air coming up from the Sahara Desert and across southern Europe.

It is then predicted that temperatures will drop slightly for the weekend.

Elsewhere in the UK, the South East of England could be facing record temperatures, rising well above 30C.