Now the Highlands are hotter than Tahiti
AFTER weeks of downpours and gales, many concluded that summer was over before it had even begun.
But thanks to a hot blast from the Mediterranean, Scotland was the hottest place in the UK yesterday.
The searing heat reached right to the north, with Kinlochewe, in Ross-shire, recording 81f (27c) – hotter than Tahiti, in French Polynesia, where it is 75f (24c).
Scores of people hit parks, open spaces and even canals as the mercury managed to hit 77f (25c) in Glasgow, while the weather in Edinburgh was so warm that people stripped to sunbathe. Prescila Silva, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, donned a tiny bikini to soak up the rays on Portobello Beach.
She said: ‘I’m glad I’m not in Brazil at the moment, the weather is terrible.’
Other beaches were also packed. Disaster was narrowly averted off Largs, Ayrshire, when two people fell from a board or boat far out at sea. Coastguard teams scrambled to save the two, and another swimmer who had gone in to help, but they reached the shore before emergency services arrived.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, ScotRail said services between Curriehill and Edinburgh were hit by ‘hot weather affecting the rails’.
A Met Office spokesman: ‘It’s been toasty in Scotland. Kinlochewe was fully one degree Celsius warmer than anywhere in England and Wales and Wednesday should see similar conditions.’