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Daily Record
Daily Record
Lifestyle
Sophie Law

Scotland set for weekend scorcher as temperatures to stay above 20C

Scotland is set for another warm weekend as temperatures will remain above 20C for some areas.

According to the Met Office, the sun will be shining on both Saturday and Sunday as we enter the first weekend of meteorological summer. The mercury is set to rise to 23C or 24C across central Scotland.

Spring has seen slightly above average rainfall across the UK as a whole but this masks strong regional differences, meteorologists said.

It comes as parts of Scotland are in a state of water scarcity. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has announced alerts for many parts of the northern Highlands and the Outer Hebrides, as well as parts of the Scottish Borders.

The Met Office has also warned that the sun will be strong with weekend, with high UV levels as people are urged to wear sunscreen.

Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin said: "It's the first weekend of meteorological summer. And for most of us, the sun is going to be shining on both Saturday and that Sunday just a cautionary note to begin with, though.

"The sun is strong at this time of year now we're in June, UV levels are going to be high. So don't forget the sunscreen at this weekend's ads.

For many central and western parts, it's more sunshine on Saturday, as temperatures, as they have been for much of this week, creeping up into the low 20s - 23, 24 maybe even 25, and one or two spots for those eastern coasts will be a little bit cooler."

It comes as Sepa has announced a water scarcity alert for many parts of Scotland. A moderate scarcity alert is in place around Loch Maree – only one step way from the most serious category – with almost every other Scottish region in an early warning state.

It is the driest spring in northern Scotland since 2018, the Met Office said, with Inverness and Sutherland recording just under two-thirds of their expected rainfall.

Stephen McGuire of the water scarcity team at Sepa said: “Spring and summer are crucial times of year for water demand and Sepa started regularly reporting on water scarcity at the end of April.

“Initially, there were early warnings of water scarcity in the north and west of Scotland with rainfall and river flows low for the time of year. But in recent weeks we have experienced more rapidly drying conditions and river levels are now very low across much of Scotland.

“We have already issued alerts for water scarcity in the north-west and south-central areas, and with little rain in the immediate forecast we expect the situation to escalate quickly and extend across a much wider area in the coming weeks. Sepa will continue to report weekly on the emerging situation.”

Across the UK, the mean average temperature for the spring was 8.36C, only slightly above the long-term average between 1991 and 2020, though this season has been only one of three since 2000 when the warmest day of the year so far has exceeded 25C on May 29 or later.

The warmest locations for mean temperature were across Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland, with some locations seeing 1.4C above the average for 1991-2020.

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