How we’ll be short of sun after longest day

SCOTS look set to enjoy temperatures in the 70s for the summer solstice today.

The warmth of the longest day will be short-lived, however, with wet and windy conditions arriving tonight.

But forecasters held out hopes of soaring temperatures on Wednesday thanks to a warm air mass arriving from Spain.

John Griffiths of the Met Office said: ‘Saturday should be a pleasant day for most in Scotland as we see temperatures creep up again to 21C or possibly 22C (70-72F).

‘Cloud could dog the far North East before burning back later. There is also the chance of an isolated shower in the Southern Uplands in the afternoon. But it will generally be a much better day than we have seen recently.’

By contrast, the Met Office had a yellow ‘be aware’ warning in place until midnight last night for thundery downpours in much of the South and West of Scotland.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued flood alerts for ten areas – Argyll and Bute, Ayrshire and Arran, Central, Dumfries and Galloway, Edinburgh and the Lothians, Fife, Scottish Borders, Skye and Lochaber, Tayside and West Central Scotland.

After the solstice sunshine the rainy theme resumes due to a lowpressure system orbiting to the North West of the country. Periods of heavy rain and wind are expected from tonight and continuing into tomorrow morning.

Drier weather will follow before rumbles of thunder, wind and more heavy rain. Tuesday is expected to remain cool and unsettled before the arrival of the warm air mass on Wednesday.

Met Office deputy chief meteorologist Martin Young said: ‘By the middle of next week, we’ll see temperatures across much of England and Wales widely climbing into the mid to high 20s Celsius.

‘It’s possible Northern Ireland and Scotland will join the rest of the country in seeing a spell of warmer weather later next week, as this hot air from the Continent extends northwards.’ With summer temperatures rising, Mountaineering Scotland has written to the Scottish Government calling for lockdown curbs on travelling further than five miles to access the hills to be eased.

It says outdoor fans living in areas such as the Central Belt are at risk of the restrictions ‘harming their wellbeing’.

Mountaineering Scotland’s chief executive officer Stuart Younie said: ‘While a lucky few who live within five miles or so of mountains have been able to restart their activities… that option remains closed to the vast majority,’