Scotland’s heatwave could push summer ‘well into October’

● Met Office’s three-month forecast predicts above-average temperatures as anticyclones hang around for longer

It’s been an abnormally hot July and August, with parts of the country basking in sweltering temperatures.

And summer in Scotland could last well into October this year – with longer spells of “dry and fine” weather making it a record-breaker, according to the Met Office.

The three-month outlook from the government agency shows that if the country continues to see the predicted above-average temperatures, it could well be a recordbreaking scorching summer.

After a two-month roast in Scotland already, the Met Office forecast says that hotter-than-normal conditions over the next three months are more likely than cooler conditions.

The weather outlook has prompted advice to councils and emergency services to prepare for above-average temperatures over the three months to the end of October

The advice comes as Britain enjoyed another balmy week- end while southern Europe’s heatwave swelters on. The mercury is set to rocket past 30C into next week.

Continuing high pressure – which has brought summer’s heatwave – is expected to stretch the warm run into autumn.

The latest forecast, briefed to local authorities and transport chiefs, said that average temperatures in Scotland in September could be up to 16C, with warm conditions even into October.

A spokeswoman for the Met Office said: “We have already seen above-average temperatures and low rainfall this summer and it looks like more high pressure systems will be around in August and September.

“We will see occasional rain mostly hitting western parts of Scotland but overall it’s set to be warmer than average.

“Weather patterns are expected to become increasingly slow moving with longer spells of largely dry and fine weather in between any brief spells of rain.

“During these spells there is a chance of very warm or hot temperatures and thunderstorms,” the spokeswoman added.

So far in June and July the average daily maximum temperature across the UK was 20.9C – just below the 21C average daily maximum in 1976, the hottest summer on record.

Tankers were deployed for the first time in Scotland this summer to deliver muchneeded water supplies.

Scottish Water revealed in July it used 30 tankers a day to transport water to areas where supplies ran short.

Water chiefs had to boost supplies in response to “unprecedented” increases in water use across the country where there has been little rainfall for weeks.

The UK had 47mm of rain so far this summer, making it the driest start to summer in modern records dating back to 1961.

0 Frances Pattinson and Hannah Dunnigan soak up the sun outside Glasgow’s Templeton Building