Sean Batty: Could Scotland break temperature record of 33C this summer?

The hashtag #ScotScorchio may be returning to our timelines soon – yes, really.

After a poor show for July on Wednesday with temperatures in the low teens, along with a strong wind and rain, some spots could be heading for the mid-20s on Thursday.

The highest temperatures will be in the east, where it will widely be in the 20s, while the far west will again hold onto more cloud and temperatures in the teens, although not quite as low as today’s values.

I think the top spots on Thursday will be the likes of Cupar, Falkland, Glenrothes, St Andrews, Pitlochry, Dunkeld, Forfar and Dundee where the high could hit 25C.

This will be some of the hottest weather so far this year, although Fife did manage 25C in mid-June. The temperatures will come down a few degrees over the weekend, although it will stay in the low 20s for eastern areas of the country.

But, despite that, another surge of warm air will move north on Monday with potentially the hottest weather of the season. Temperatures around Edinburgh, Fife and Moray could reach 26C on Monday.

Meanwhile, the far north and west will hang onto more cloud and outbreaks of light showery rain, which will continue to hold the temperatures back here.

Beyond early next week, there’s big model variations, with most going for more settled conditions with temperatures staying in the low 20s, although a few models also show north to north-westerly winds coming in and dragging the temperatures way down again.

One thing to note is the extreme heat which has been waxing and waning across Europe so far this summer, especially for Italy and Spain.

I’m not saying this will happen, but if a long southerly flow were to develop at any point in the next six weeks, I’d say there could be a decent chance of our Scottish record of 33C being broken.

Embrace the sunshine when you’ve got it, but remember the sunburn risk is still very high and burn time will be down to around 20 minutes.