About blooming time! It’s spring at last

WITH daffodils in full bloom and the sun beaming down, it really did feel yesterday that spring might be here at last.

After a long and punishing winter, with blizzards seen as recently as a week ago, Scotland basked in the warmest day of the year so far.

St Patrick’s Day today promises another dose of unbroken sunshine, courtesy of a large area of high pressure anchored off Ireland.

And tomorrow could see highs of 17C (63F) in the Central Belt or on the Solway Coast.

Steven Keates of the Met Office said: ‘Temperatures have been well up on the average for this time of year.

‘For the middle of March, you would normally be looking at 6C to 7C (42-44F) in the north of Scotland and anything between 8C and 9C (46-48F) in the south.

‘But we have just seen a high of 15.4C (60F) in Edinburgh, which makes it Scotland’s warmest day of the year so far.

‘The last time we saw anything close was the 15.1C (59F) at Durris, Kincardineshire, on February 27.’

High pressure off the west coast of Ireland is preventing wind and rain from coming in from the west. This protection allowed Scotland to enjoy some of the UK’s best weather yesterday, with London and the South-East of England seeing cloud and drizzle. Wales recorded a high of 17C (63F).

Mr Keates added: ‘We are looking at a quiet week of weather to come. The high pressure will keep things nice and settled for the next few days.

‘You might even be forgiven for getting out the barbecue, it’s going to feel that pleasant.’

With frosts still possible in the mornings, we are now in the highest diurnal range of the year – the biggest difference between day and night temperatures.

ONE in three Scots women feel unsafe walking home alone at night amid rising levels of sexual crimes, a survey shows.

Shockingly, growing numbers of women say they have been the victim of sexual assault, including attempted rape.

The Government’s latest Scottish Crime and Justice Survey also revealed a rise in complaints of unwanted sexual touching.

Most of those surveyed said they were not aware of police patrols in their area.

The study suggests that 35 per cent of women are concerned about walking home alone in the dark. That is well below the 90 per cent of men who said they feel safe or fairly safe on the streets after sunset.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘The SNP have diminished local police presence and the impact is clear – violence has spiked on their watch.

‘The Scottish Conservatives have the solutions to cut down crime, including a Victims Law to end the SNP’s soft-touch justice system and a Local Policing act to put more officers out on the front line.’

From 2008-09 to 2019-20 there was an increase in the proportion of Scots reporting attempted rape since the age of 16 (from 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent).

a similar rise was seen in the number of people – overwhelmingly women – who said they had been the victim of another form of attempted sexual activity, from 0.7 per cent to 1.3 per cent.

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: ‘We are working to tackle violence against women and girls.’

a spokesman for the Scottish Government said it ‘is committed to challenging men’s violence against women’.