Scotland is set to be soaked by the annual June 'monsoon' which is heading to our shores later this week.
The Met Office warns that an area of low pressure, previously Tropical Storm Alex, will move towards Scotland bringing strong winds and rain.
A sizzling start to the month will make way for wet weather and gales which will be worst in northern and western areas of Scotland, bringing larges waves to the coasts.
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It comes after Scotland saw the best of the weather over the Queen's Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend with a high of 23.2C at Drumnadrochit near Loch Ness in the Highlands on Saturday.
It resulted in Scotland's hottest temperature of the year so far as parts the country enjoyed more than 16 hours of glorious sunshine.
This week's weather is the result of the so-called 'European Monsoon' phenomenon which usually arrives in waves in June.
According to the Met Office, the annual phenomenon is not actually a monsoon at all - it applies to a return of westerly winds across the UK and north-west Europe.
The Met Office tweeted: "Parts of the UK will see a period of unseasonably windy weather later this week. An area of low pressure, previously Tropical Storm Alex, will move towards the northwest of Scotland, bringing strong winds and large waves to many northern and western areas."
The low-pressure system that was responsible for some of the unsettled weather down south over the weekend is now out in the North Sea.
From late on Tuesday and into Wednesday, the Met Office expects slow-moving thundery downpours to move across northern areas of the UK.
Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist Adam Thornhill said: “The low-pressure on Wednesday will bring showers to most areas of the UK, but the heaviest, slow-moving downpours are expected in northern areas with a chance of associated thunder and lightning.
"Although rainfall amounts are still open to some uncertainty, there’s a chance some areas in the north could see in excess of 20mm of rain within a 3-hour period.
“This will largely break up later in the day on Wednesday, leaving behind just a few showers by the late evening.”
The unsettled theme is to continue later in the week when the remnants of Ex-Tropical Storm Alex, that brought heavy rain to southern Florida in recent days, tracks to the northwest of the UK from the Atlantic.
It will bring with it some high winds and rain, albeit to a much lesser extent than was seen in America.
Adam continued: “By the time Ex-Tropical Storm Alex gets near UK shores, it will have transitioned into a mature Atlantic low.
"Although it will have lost much of its strength, it will bring some unseasonably strong winds across the UK – especially to the northwest on Thursday and Friday
“The track of the former storm currently looks to be grazing the far northwest of the UK on Thursday and Friday and, although the details are still being worked out, winds could be around 45mph for most in the north of the UK, with a chance of some gusts in excess of 55mph in some exposed northwestern island and coastal areas.”
The weather through the weekend looks likely to be a mix of sunshine and showers – which could be heaviest in the northwest – with some breezy conditions likely to persist in the far north.
