Balmy Scotland set to record hottest autumn since Victoria’s reign

SCOTLAND is on course to register its hottest autumn ever, in records going back to the days of Queen Victoria.

With just a few days of the season remaining, an average temperature of 9.78C (50F) places it warmer than 2006, the hottest autumn recorded so far.

The figures have been compiled since 1884, the year Scotland beat England in the first Home Championship contest, and Royal Marines arrived on Skye to deal with the fallout from the attempted eviction of crofters engaged in a rent strike.

Scotland has already recorded the warmest overnight temperature for any November, when the mercury hit 14.6C (58F) earlier this month. To show how the climate is changing rapidly, last autumn was the third warmest Scotland had ever seen.

Rebecca Hudson, of the Met Office, said it will not be certain until all the autumn statistics are examined after Wednesday, the final day of November.

Recent heavy rainfall is likely to become a distant memory in the forecast reaching into the second week of December. A ridge of high pressure is beginning to build from the west, heralding drier and sunnier conditions, starting today.

Yesterday saw some heavy downpours in Central Scotland, featuring in a yellow Met Office warning for disruptive rain.

Ferry services were badly disrupted on the west coast due to the bad weather.