SCOTLAND recorded Britain’s highest temperature yesterday and the country is expected set a record heading into the Bank Holiday weekend.
The village of Aboyne, in Aberdeenshire, saw the Mercury rise to 81.5°F, while cities such as Glasgow, where people took to sunbathing in George Square and parks, reached 77°F. Others headed to the beach.
But the effect of continued hot air rising up from the continent could spark even higher temperatures today with the Met Office predicting 86°F possible in the north-east.
Forecaster Grahame Madge, of the Met Office, said: “Today’s temperature in Aboyne is not only the highest in Britain of the day, but the top UK temperature of 2017 so far.
“Something with a three in front of it is possible on Friday, with the best chance of 86°F or higher around the Inverness or Moray Firth area.
“If 86°F is recorded in the UK on Friday, it is almost certainly going to be in Scotland.”
The record for a May day in Scotland goes back to 2012, when 87.6°F was recorded at Inverailort, in Lochaber.
The sudden arrival of hot weather saw Scots head for the beaches and parks yesterday.
At Rouken Glen Park in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, “Prosecco Picnics” were the order of the day.
Karla Roarty and Dorothy Sweeney raised a glass at the park’s famous pond.
Karla, 35, from Knightswood in Glasgow, joked: “We wanted to go out for the day and asked if we could borrow a friend’s dog as an excuse for a walk. The dog didn’t want to come, so we decided to go to the park anyway.”
Dorothy Sweeney, 57, from Shawlands, in the city, said: “This is just fabulous weather. Why would go abroad if you got a couple of weeks of this each year?”
Shops say people will be stocking up for Barbecue Friday, the first weekend of the year when they can comfortably eat outdoors.
Glasgow Airport expect 40,000 people to fly out for supposedly better weather, while the RAC estimates that 16.5 journeys are to be taken for leisure over between Friday and Bank Holiday Monday, a rise of 2.5 on last year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel