A bank holiday bonus

Dry spell will see sun shine on VE Day anniversary

SCOTLAND is set for a week of dry, sunny weather as a high pressure system moves in from Canada.

A prolonged ridge of high pressure was responsible for delivering the sunniest April on record, shattering the previous record set in 1942.

Now the first full week in May will be notable for even more sunshine, with temperatures up to 19C (66F) by the VE Day bank holiday on Friday.

But clear skies mean early morning frosts are possible, bringing lows of -5C (23F) in some glens.

Met Office spokesman Matthew Box said: ‘It’s looking not too bad at all for Scotland right up to next weekend.

‘South-West and southern England and even South Wales will be impacted by low pressure, bringing showery rain and high winds.

But because the high pressure is locked over Scotland, you are likely to see the best conditions for most of next week.’

The arriving high pressure will dry out any showers by today, with the mercury rising gradually through tomorrow and into Wednesday.

Glasgow will be the warmest part of the country, climbing to 17C (63F) tomorrow, 18C (64F) on Wednesday and possibly 19C (66F) by Thursday.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has issued an ‘alert’ to southern Scotland that the ground is now ‘particularly dry’, as it already is in the east of the country.

Sepa’s latest water scarcity report said: ‘April has seen extremely dry conditions across most of Scotland. This has affected river flows, which are low across the majority of the country, and ground conditions, which are quite dry nationally and are particularly dry in the East and South of Scotland, where areas are in “alert”.

‘Groundwater levels are continuing to fall across the country and are very low in the North-East.’