5 things I learnt from Scotland’s hottest ever day

On Tuesday 19th July 2022, Scotland recorded its hottest ever day with a temperature of 35.1 degrees celsius in Kelso in the Scottish borders.

Sensing that this might be a record-breaking day, I went out in Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital city, to see just how hot it was going to get and to document to what it felt like.

The unprecedented heatwave culminated on Tuesday 19th July after three consecutive days of very strong heat. This video charts my travels around Edinburgh as I start off in Portobello beach for sunrise. By lunchtime as the weather began to get hotter, I climbed Salisbury Crags to [unwisely] film during the midday sun.

As the temperature broke 30 degrees and continued to rise in the early afternoon, I visited Princes Street Gardens and Calton Hill. By 5pm I was fiming on Craiglockhart Hill and the temperature had peaked but was still unusually high at 29 degrees. In the evening I ventured into the Pentland Hills in an attempt to capture the sunset.

In England, temperatures broke 40 degrees for the first time. The UK’s hottest ever temperature was broken before midday and continued to rise in the afternoon. Temperatures all over the UK were broken – not by a small percentage, but by a significant margin. This is a warning. Undoubtedly these incredible temperatures are a sign that we need to do far more to combat the threat of global warming.

Whilst it is beautiful to see Edinburgh and Scotland basking in sunshine, these kinds of record-breaking temperatures and heatwaves are not something that I want to see on a regular basis.