Loch Maree near Kinlochewe in the Scottish Highlands. It is often warmer there than in the rest of the UK.
Foto: Mepstock / Shutterstock
Winds have brought mild air from Africa and given Britain warmer weather than normal, reports Sky News.
It has also brought a new heat record for January. In Kinlochewe in the Scottish Highlands, 19.6 degrees were measured on Sunday, according to the British Met Office. It is hotter than both Rome and the French Riviera, writes the BBC.
Common with heat
The figure is preliminary, but if it stands it will beat the previous British record from 2003 when it was 18.3 degrees in Aboyne in Aberdeenshire, also in Scotland.
Donald MacLennan, who runs the Kinlochewe Hotel, tells the BBC that it is “very hot”, but that no one is out enjoying the weather because it is also windy.
– We are surrounded by mountains so the place can be a heat trap and we have been in the news before because we have the hottest weather in the UK, he says.
The Föhn effect an explanation
According to the British media, the heat can partly be explained by the so-called föhn effect. It is an effect that can occur when air moves from a moist and cold side of a mountain (the windward side) to warmer and drier conditions on the other side (the leeward side). If the air releases precipitation on the windward side, the heating of the air is faster on the leeward side, which means that it will be warmer on one side of the mountain. It is especially common in large mountain ranges.
In addition to heat, the winds from Africa also bring dust from the Sahara, according to Sky News. This means that red dust may settle on streets and cars in the UK for the next 24 hours.
In Sweden, the heat record for January is 12.4 degrees in Småland’s Allgunnen in 1973.
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