Scotland will bake in warm temperatures over the coming days - but will miss out on the searing hot sunshine expected in England and Wales.
A health alert has been issued in England, with temperatures expected to peak as high as 34C south of the border on Friday.
But the temperatures appear to dip as you travel up to Scotland, with the southeast of the country seeing a high of 21C on Friday - which is still four degrees above average for the time of the year.
Forecasters are expecting a series of weak fronts to close in on Scotland from tomorrow, which will bring cloudier weather with a chance of some light rain in parts - especially in the northwest of the country.
Much of Scotland will see the thermostat climb into the 20s over Thursday and Friday.
The Met Office's Clare Nasir explains: “As we head through Thursday, we could see some hazy sunshine through the day, but again, some clearer skies later on.
“In fact we’ll see some warm sunshine through Thursday, as temperatures rise quite nicely into the 20s - but there’s always a chance of a little bit more cloud and some shower bursts of rain clipping the far west.
“It will feel warm yet again on Friday, and then things just turn a little bit fresher with some showery bursts of rain into the weekend.”
A level two health alert has been issued for much of southern and central England, with a level one alert in place for northern England.
Forecasters are expecting large parts of southern England to see temperatures climb into the 30s over Friday.
Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist Dan Rudman said: “Temperatures will continue to rise as we go through the week, becoming well above-average by Friday when many parts of the southern half of the UK are likely to exceed 30C and may even reach 34C in some places.
“This is the first spell of hot weather this year and it is unusual for temperature to exceed these values in June. Many areas will also see some warm nights with minimum temperatures expected to be in the high teens or even low 20Cs for some overnight.
“The heat is a result of a mix of home-grown warming in the day due to high pressure, as well as a southerly airflow introducing some of the warm air from the continent to UK shores.”
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