A family enjoys the July 2019 heat at Killin, Loch Tay.
Dry, hot summers with temperatures around 30C are set to become the norm in Scotland, researchers suggest.
Analysis of UK climate projections by Met Office staff and researchers at the universities of Edinburgh and Oxford indicates a substantial increase in the likelihood of Scottish summers being similar to the mid-year heatwave of 2018, between now and 2050.
The country experienced unusually hot conditions that summer, with a near record high of 31.9C recorded at Bishopton in Renfrewshire.
A temperature of 33.2C was measured at Strathclyde Park in Motherwell in June 2018 but this was not accepted as a new record by the Met Office, due to fears the equipment could have been affected by a nearby parked vehicle.
The 32.9C recorded in August 2003, at Greycrook in the Borders, is Scotland’s highest ever temperature. Unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, the researchers said it is possible every summer will be as hot as 2018 towards the end of the century.
