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A village in the Scotland Highlands has provisionally set the record for the warmest ever January temperature, after hitting, the Met Office has confirmed.
Kinlochewe in the north-west Highlands recorded the temperature on Sunday. If confirmed, it would also be the record for a winter’s day in Scotland.
In a post on X, the Met Office said: “There has provisionally been a new UK January daily max temperature record set today at Kinlochewe where the temperature reached 19.6C.
“This beats the previous January UK record of 18.3C set at Inchmarlo and Aboyne in 2003 and Aber in 1958 and 1971.”
A Met Office spokesperson told the PA news agency the temperature in Kinlochewe was the result of a “brisk, mild, southerly flow” combined with a meteorological phenomenon known as “the Foehn effect”.
The spokesperson explained: “The Foehn effect takes place when air is forced to rise over the mountain and warms.
“The warming air then travels back down the other side of the mountain, bringing anomalously high temperatures in the area.
“Although it was a mild day, it was also very windy across Scotland.
“Yellow wind warnings are in force, and we have recorded a gust of 71mph at South Uist in the Western Isles.”
On Sunday afternoon the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service deployed crews to put out a wildfire in the Glencanisp area of Lochinver which at one point covered approximately 1.5 miles.
A spokesperson said: “We mobilised three appliances – two from Ullapool and one from Lairg – and they left the scene at 5pm.”
Meanwhile the UK will see a “three-way split” in weather conditions on Monday, with a yellow rain warning issued for north-west England.
The Met Office said a band of rain stretching from southern Scotland to south-west England will keep temperatures mild in the south and east, but much colder for the rest of Scotland and Northern Ireland.
A yellow rain warning covering large parts of Lancashire and Cumbria has been issued from 12pm on Monday to 5am on Tuesday, with around 40 to 50mm possible on high ground and the potential for localised disruption.
