A searing heatwave direct from the Costas could serve up Scotland’s hottest day of the year so far tomorrow – before spectacular summer thunderstorms hit the country.
Many sweet spots are on course to record temperatures of 31C (88F), eclipsing the previous high for the year, the 30C (86F) seen at Achnagart, Loch Shiel in Lochaber on June 28.
The dream forecast is sure to lead to packed beaches and parks, with the school holiday now in full swing.
Across Britain as a whole, a remarkable new all-time heat record could be achieved, with 38 or even 39C (100-102F) possible for London and the south east.
Matthew Box of the Met Office said: "We are looking at the prospect of the UK’s hottest day ever.
“It’s being caused by a combination of high pressure actively over the near continent and low pressure in the Atlantic dragging up hot air from France and Spain.
“With that, we will see some very high temperatures across the south east. The figures we are going with are 38 or 39C.
"This is likely to break the July record of 36.7C (98F) seen at Heathrow on July 1 2015 and perhaps the UK all-time record temperature of 38.5C seen at Faversham in Kent on August 10 2003.
“Temperatures in Scotland will be way above the seasonal norm, too, with 26, 27 or 28 (79-82F) across the central belt.
“The highest we are expecting things to get is around 31C (88F) in either Glasgow , Edinburgh or Inverness.”
As things hot up, so too does the possibility of destabilised air setting off spectacular thunderstorms later on Thursday.
The Met Office has a warning of severe weather in place for the south east of Scotland, up through Lothians and Edinburgh and as far north as Aberdeen.
The far west of the country should escape the electrical activity, occurring between 3pm tomorrow all the way until 4am on Friday, though North and South Lanarkshire could be affected.
Where they do occur, these storms could generate very heavy downpours, as much as 20-30mm (up to one inch) of rain in less than an hour.
There will also be frequent strikes of lightning, showers of hail and gusty winds.
According to the Met Office, this could lead to flooding and power cuts, as well as difficult driving conditions on the roads.
Refrigeration experts say they expect commercial fridges to start failing in the heatwave.
One expert said: "Most fridges in supermarkets are designed to cope with temperatures up to 35C (95F).
“They work hard during the day and recover once temperatures drop at night.
“But we have seen things remaining hot overnight, reducing the machine’s ability to recover.
“We fully expect a lot of food to be thrown out over the next few days as fridges struggle to cope.”
Earlier today there was some disruption on the Highland Mainline and Far North line after signaling equipment was damaged by a lightning strike between Inverness and Beauly.
Services between Glasgow and Edinburgh and Inverness were resumed but there were some delays and cancellations up to 10am.
A ScotRail spokesperson said: “We’re sorry to our customers who had their journey disrupted this morning. Engineers worked as quickly as possible to fix the signal faults and get services back to normal.
“Anyone delayed by 30 minutes or more is entitled to claim money back through our Delay Repay Guarantee on our website or mobile app.”
Similar damage in the north of England caused delays to the Caledonian Sleeper services to Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Firefighters were called to a domestic address in Markinch, Fife, after the roof of a house caught fire during a lightning storm.
Research indicates that climate change is making heatwaves more likely. A study by the Met Office into last summer’s heatwave in the UK showed that it was 30 times more likely to occur now than in 1750 because of the higher concentration of carbon dioxide - a greenhouse gas - in the atmosphere.
As greenhouse gas concentrations increase, heatwaves of similar intensity are projected to become even more frequent, perhaps occurring as regularly as every other year.
The Earth’s surface temperature has risen by 1°C since the pre-industrial period (1850-1900).
Met Office Chief Meteorologist Paul Gundersen said: "The UK will experience another pulse of high temperatures this week, with the possibility of records being broken for not only July but also all-time records.
“The weather setup is broadly similar to the pattern that brought high temperatures to much of continental Europe at the end of June.
“As well as high temperatures during the day, overnight temperatures will also be notably warm and could also break records. Conditions will feel much more comfortable for all by the time we get to Friday.”
