Sizzling at 80F!
Heatwave is set to end miserable run of August weather
SCOTLAND’S miserable run of weather is set to end this weekend as an 80F (26.7C) heatwave will see out August.
Rain will lash the west of the country today but tomorrow is a drying out day before sunshine breaks out quite widely for the last weekend of the month.
The sunny outlook will go some way to rescuing Scotland’s troubled harvest. Farmers say they needed five dry days so that combine harvesters and trailers could achieve traction in the fields.
With the forecast set fair into next week, it should also result in a perfect conclusion to the Festival and Fringe in Edinburgh.
The capital is already gearing up for the busiest weekend of the year. Several hundred thousand visitors are expected to pack Edinburgh’s streets on Saturday as the curtain comes down on the annual cultural extravanganza of the Festival.
On top of that, more than 60,000 rugby fans will add to the capital crush at a rare summer lunch-time clash with France at Murrayfield. Other parts of the country will share in the scorching weather, with forecasters predicting dry and sunny conditions, with possible highs of 28C (82F) in Glasgow by Sunday.
Bonnie Diamond of the Met Office said: ‘Thursday is expected to be very wet, particularly in the West of Scotland.
‘But the good news is the weekend looks like being dry and sunny, with all parts nudging temperatures very welcome for the end of August.
‘Temperatures will be kept a bit lower on the East Coast but Glasgow could top 26C (79F) on Saturday and possibly even 28C (82F) on Sunday.’
In England, where it is the August bank holiday, record
‘Weekend looks dry and sunny’
breaking temperatures are predicted, with the thermometer hitting 91F. On Sunday and Monday, temperatures in the South could be as high as 32C (90F) or even 33C (91F).
The current record temperature for the August bank holiday weekis 31.5C (88.7F), recorded at Heathrow Airport on August 25, 2001, while the record for the August bank holiday Monday is 28.2C (82.8F), at Holbeach, Lincolnshire, in 2017.
Greg Dewhurst of the Met Office said: ‘Over the last few weeks, we have had the jet stream across the UK bringing low pressure area after low pressure area, keeping things cool.
‘But we’re going to see the jet stream move north, allowing the wind direction to change from westerly to southerly, so warm weather can flow north from the Continent. The warm and sunny conditions are set to extend across the UK.’
The hot sunshine comes after 94mm (3.7in) of rain fell across the UK between August 1 and 17 – about 5 per cent more than the national average for the entire month.