Scotland's weather: Summer could stretch into October

Summer could last into October this year in Scotland with longer spells of 'dry and fine' weather making it a record breaker, according to the MET office.

It could well be a record-breaking scorching summer across the UK. Picture: Andrew O'Brien

The three-month outlook from the Government agency says if we continue to see the predicted above average temperatures, it could well be a record-breaking scorching summer across the UK.

After a two-month roast in Scotland already, the Met Office forecast says much hotter-than-normal conditions over the next three months are more likely than cooler conditions.

And the weather outlook has prompted advice to councils and emergency services to prepare for hotter-than-average temperatures over the three months to the end of October

It comes as Brits enjoy another balmy weekend while southern Europe’s heatwave swelters on. The mercury is set to rocket past 30C into next week.

More high pressure – which has brought summer’s heatwave - will stretch the warm run into autumn.

The latest forecast, briefed to local authorities and transport chiefs, said September could be up to 16C in Scotland, with warm conditions even into October.

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A spokeswoman for the Met Office said: “We have already seen above average temperatures and low rainfall this summer and it looks like more high pressure systems will be around in August and September. We will see occasional rain mostly hitting western parts of Scotland but overall it’s set to be warmer than average.”

“Weather patterns are expected to become increasingly slow moving with longer spells of largely dry and fine weather in between any brief spells of rain. During these spells there is a chance of very warm or hot temperatures and thunderstorms.”

So far in June and July the average daily maximum temperature across the UK was 20.9 °C just below the 21C average daily maximum in the hottest summer on record, 1976.

Tankers were deployed for the first time in Scotland this summer to deliver much-needed water supplies.

Scottish Water revealed in July it used 30 tankers a day to transport water to areas where supplies ran short.

Water chiefs had to boost supplies in response to “unprecedented” increases in water use across the country where there was little or no rainfall for weeks and teams were working at near capacity to meet that need.

The UK had 47 mm of rain so far this summer making it the driest start to summer in modern records dating back to 1961.