Thanks to cloudless skies and a stiff downslope ESE wind, Lusa, Isle of Skye was the place to be anywhere in the UK yesterday. The thermometer peaked at 26.7C which made for the warmest recorded temperature on the island in May and it was looking more like a Mediterranean island.

As warm as yesterday or today may be, Scotland’s May record stands at 30.9C (87.6F) recorded at Inverailort back in 2012. Interestingly that summer was very wet and disappointing.

NASA visible satellite view yesterday.

Photographed from ISS by Tim Peake.

Up-close Northern Ireland.

Portrush beach on NI’s North Coast was looking more like a beach on the Spanish Costas yesterday!

Yesterday’s UK maximums.

 

A big temperature contrast within just 10 miles yesterday over NE Scotland. This is what you get when you’ve protective hills near the coast which can separate the chill of onshore breeze and harr and windless, brilliantly sunny warm skies.

TOP IMAGE CREDIT: Anne Kelly ‏@annlizkelly

[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]

This morning is much the same as yesterday here as scene from the traffic Scotland camera overlooking the Skye bridge.

Check out the gloomy morning commute on the other end of the country in Edinburgh, traffic and very misty skies.

Meanwhile just 40 miles west in Glasgow, it’s a pleasant, sunny commute.

Temperatures are likely to reach the warmest values anywhere in the UK for a second straight afternoon, peaking at between 25-26C.

The further south and east you go, the cooler it is with Scotland’s North Sea Coast downright chilly with lingering cloud, mist and harr along with sea breeze.

As for England and Wales, it’s a very different picture thanks to the low bringing poor weather to Spain, Portugal and France is also making for a disappointing day across southern and central England and Wales.

While temperatures slowly come down over Scotland from 25 today, 22 tomorrow and back into the teens Thursday, it remains largely dry, bright and pleasant in the North, more unsettled across the South.

Further south and the weather has been even poorer in the places that you’d expect it to be best…

So, we know the cooling trend kicks in today and it’s much cooler by the weekend but what next?

Looks like the GFS ensemble holds a more negative NAO pattern Friday through perhaps Tuesday-Wednesday of next week but there is increasing confidence of the height field reversing once again to an Icelandic trough which suggests, warmest and most settled Spain to Southern England, more changeable and unsettled for Northern Ireland and Scotland but this may not be till later next week.

Following a cooler spell, a warming trend looks likely with surge of summer for Spain and Portugal.

See this morning’s video.

[/s2If][s2If current_user_cannot(access_s2member_level1)][magicactionbox id=”18716″][/s2If]