1976

THE year that holds the record as the driest summer, the second sunniest and third hottest in the last 40 years.

The weather was so warm that umpires at Wimbledon were allowed to break 100 years of tradition and take their jackets off. And snowploughs had to take to the A9 between Perth and Inverness – to spray sand on to the melting tar. Furthermore, drought-hit forests across the country were ravaged by fire while farmers’ crops failed.

Rivers and reservoirs dried up, and the country was plagued by a swarm of sevenspotted ladybirds that besieged towns and villages.