A heatwave in Scotland has now officially been declared by the Met Office after scorching temperatures have remained high over the past week.
Despite summer storms, temperatures have remained higher than the average of 25C in Scotland for three consecutive days, which means the conditions can be referred to as a heatwave.
Those in the Threave area of Dumfries even saw temperatures spike at a sweltering 30.7C on Monday, June 12, the forecasters confirmed - the country's hottest day of the year so far.
It comes as people have been warned of thunderstorms which may be triggered by these high temperatures. Yellow weather warnings are in place for rain and even hail and lightning, with the Met Office extending its alert to cover most of Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Forecasters have warned that the summer storms could batter parts of the country later on today, but after that, settled conditions are likely to return again for the rest of the week. Temperatures will rarely drop below 20C in some places.
For those in the west of Scotland and up towards Perth and the Highlands, the thunder warning is in place from 12pm until 9pm tonight, with the Met Office even warning that fast-flowing flood water could pose a "danger to life".
Hailstones, heavy rain and lightning strikes are also a possibility, which could lead to disruption on the roads, so people should take extra care when travelling in these areas.
But after these stormy conditions have passed, there's more hot weather on the way for Scotland and the rest of the UK as the week goes on.
Met Office forecaster and meteorologist Simon Partridge said the worst of the thunderstorms was now over and drier weather was expected going into the latter parts of the week.
He said: “We’ve got high pressure starting to rebuild over the course of the day and when you get high pressure that’s what gives us lots of dry, settled weather, like what we’ve had over the last couple of weeks.
“That’s becoming more established tomorrow and through the week so we will see a lot of the country (on Tuesday) be dry with sunny spells."
Simon continued: "The thunderstorms have gradually been working their way westwards over the last couple of days because the area of the warmest and most humid air has drifted its way westwards, as a result… we’re expecting to see thunderstorms across parts of western Scotland and Northern Ireland.
“A few heavy rain spells are possible and could see some heavy downpours so there is the potential to see 20mm-plus of rain over a couple of hours, so not as much as we’ve seen over the last couple of days but certainly enough that anyone travelling will have to be aware.”
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