FURNACE FRIDAY
Country set for record temperatures... but storms on the way
BRITAIN is set for record July temperatures before storms bring torrential rain and even flooding.
Forecasters predict the mercury will soar to 35C (95F) today and as high as 37C (98.6F) tomorrow in some parts of the UK.
The heatwave is then set to break down temporarily over the weekend before resuming next week.
The current record July temperature is 36.7C (98F), at Heathrow, on July 1, 2015. The UK’s all-time warmest temperature was 38.5C (101.3F), at Faversham, Kent, on August 10, 2003.
In June, Scotland recorded its hottest ever day with a temperature of 33.2C (91.8F) degrees recorded in Motherwell, Lanarkshire. The temperature was later struck from official records because a vehicle with its engine running was parked too close to the equipment.
Scotland is expected to bask in temperatures of up to 27C (80.6F) today before thunderstorms arrive tomorrow. Over the weekend, areas of low pressure are set to bring bands of cloud and rain, reducing temperatures before high pressure brings back the warm sunshine next week.
Across Britain, fine and very warm weather is then due to continue towards the end of August.
Met Office forecaster Grahame Madge said: ‘There is nothing in the longer-term forecast to suggest a dramatic change.’
He said record temperatures are expected only in parts of London and the south-east of England tomorrow but said that other areas could be in the 70s to 80s Fahrenheit (the high 20s to low 30s Celsius).
One place where cooler temperatures could still be found was Britain’s highest peak, Ben Nevis, where the Royal Meteorological Society encountered snow tunnels – caused by warmer air being blown through the snow.
Thunderstorms are expected to erupt between 2pm and midnight tomorrow, across eastern and southern Scotland.
With more than an inch of rain predicted to fall in an hour, spray could make driving conditions difficult and flooding is a possibility as ground baked hard by sunshine is unable to absorb the volume of water. The rain will come as a welcome relief to Scotland’s water chiefs, who have been forced to urge homes and businesses in Fife to use water wisely as a result of the dry summer.
Scottish Water says water levels are currently lower than normal at two reservoirs – Glendevon and Glenfarg – that serve the area. The utility is using water from the
‘Thunderstorms expected to erupt’
River Earn to top up supplies and asks customers to be careful what they use.
In Inverness-shire, the dry spell has seen a crumbling stone bridge submerged beneath the waters of Loch Cluanie resurface, revealing the last remains of the Road to the Isles.
Water levels have dropped so significantly, the ruins of the Corrielair shooting lodge have broken the surface of the loch for the first time since 1993. Locals have also been surprised to see remains of the nearby drovers’ bridge.
The bridge and road disappeared more than 60 years ago when the area, in Inverness-shire, was flooded to make way for the hydroelectric dam on Loch Cluanie.
The lodge was all but destroyed, with only two chimney stacks of what is believed to be a washhouse surviving.
Photographs taken yesterday echoed those taken 25 years ago when water levels last dropped to reveal the stone arched bridge.
It comes as hoteliers in the Spanish resort of Benidorm revealed an 8 per cent fall in the number of British tourists in the first weeks of July, compared with the same period in 2017.
Reservoir levels are continuing to fall, with Howden Reservoir in the Peak District now at just 55 per cent of capacity. Severn Trent, which runs the reservoir, said its reservoirs were at 71.4 per cent of capacity on Monday, down from 92.6 per cent in late May.