Scotland's beaches and parks were thronged yesterday as the country enjoyed its warmest Easter Sunday
on record.
The temperature peaked at 23C in Trawsgoed, Wales, 23.4°C in Edinburgh, the Met Office said, Scotland, and 20.7C in Helen’s Bay, Northern Ireland, by 2pm.
This beat the 21.6C in Brynamman, Wales, in 1984, along with 20.7°C recorded in Aboyne, Scotland, in 2015, and 19.4C in Armagh in Northern Ireland dating back to 1924 which were the warmest Easter Sundays for those countries.
South of the Border, 25°C was recorded in Wisley, Surrey - just shy of the record of 25.3C.
Weather experts said temperatures could head even higher today before cooling down from tomorrow the middle of the week.
Here's a look at the #Weather for next week... #WeekAhead pic.twitter.com/zkLWf6yqjD
— Met Office (@metoffice) April 21, 2019
Met Office forecaster Marco Petagna said: “We have got high pressure moving at the moment, giving most of the UK a lot of fine weather,. This, combined with the fact the high pressure has dominated for the past few days, is allowing the temperatures to heat and build.
“It is allowing some record-breaking temperatures to be set today and potentially tomorrow as we are looking at a high of 25°C or 26°C.”
Read more: Extreme weather is blamed for huge rise in farm animal deaths
He also suggested the temperatures may also be helped by Easter being a little later in the calendar this year.
He said: “The later in the year that Easter falls, the higher the sun is in the sky and the stronger it is.”
It comes after Easter Saturday became the UK’s warmest day of the year so far when the temperature hit 25.5°C in Gosport, Hampshire.
The UK’s warmest Easter temperature was the 29.4°C at Camden Square, London, in 1949.
The other warmest Easter weekend days include the 26.9°C at London’s St James’s Park on Good Friday in 2011
– when the mercury also reached 25.3°C on Easter Sunday and 24°C on Easter Monday, both in the Solent.
Mr Hall said that in “stark contrast” to the dry and sunny conditions in the UK, Spain and the Mediterranean were seeing showers and heavy downpours.
Among those out enjoying the sunshine in Scotland yesterday were hundreds of bikers who took part part in the 40th annual Easter Egg Run in Glasgow.
Each year, a convoy of motorbike riders travels through the city to take Easter eggs to patients at the Royal Hospital For Children in Govan.
This year’s event was started by Glasgow Lord Provost Eva Bolander and East Ayrshire’s Provost Jim Todd at Glasgow Green.
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 here