It was the hottest day of the year so far in Scotland as records were broken across the country yesterday.
Temperatures in Edinburgh reached a sweltering 31.6 degrees, bettering the year’s best of 31 degrees recorded in Achnagart in the Highlands last month.
Kinloss, which was the warmest place place in Scotland on Tuesday, again enjoyed a scorcher with the mercury hitting 31 degrees in the Moray village.
It reached 30 degrees in the Highlands and nearly 27 in Aberdeenshire.
Met Office forecaster, Craig Snell, said: “This was the peak of the heat and we will be seeing the temperatures return nearer to normal.
“After the warm day yesterday, the temperatures won’t really fall away today but there will be rain after the thunder overnight.
“It will be a little bit cooler but could still reach 27 degrees in Aberdeen.”
The exceptionally high temperatures have gripped parts of Scotland but also much of central, eastern and southern England as a plume of hot air pushed north from the Continent.
The Met Office said a new record temperature for July was set at 38.1 degrees in Cambridge, beating the previous record of 36.7 degrees set in Heathrow in 2015.
It trails only the 38.1 degrees temperature recorded in Kent in 2003.
New high temperature records have also been set in parts of Belgium, Germany and Holland as a heatwave grips western and central Europe, pushing the mercury above 40 degrees.
As the weather returns to more familiar conditions over the weekend the north-east coastline is expected to be the place most likely to stay dry, while the western Highlands could escape the rain on Sunday.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) issued a flood alert for the entirety of the country lasting through last night.
That was ahead of what forecasters described as “lively” thunderstorms expected to work their way across Scotland and over the North Sea today.