Updated: 2026-07-31
The hottest July day ever recorded at the nearest Met Office measuring point to Glasgow reached 28.0 °C — the maximum temperature on 21 July 1972, a figure that has stood for over half a century.
The closest long-term weather station to Glasgow is operated by the Met Office at Aberfoyle, in Perthshire, situated at 28 metres above sea level and about 35.6 km from the city centre. This is the point we use as the reference for Glasgow's historical climate. It is important to note that the actual weather in Glasgow can differ from what this station records, due to local factors such as altitude variations, proximity to the River Clyde, urban heat, or sheltered valley effects. The data below is the best available reference — it describes what is measured at Aberfoyle, not a direct measurement of Glasgow itself.
During the 34-year period from 1968 to 2001, the station at Aberfoyle registered its absolute July heat record on 21 July 1972, when the daily maximum temperature climbed to 28.0 °C. This remains the highest July maximum in the entire available series for this location. It is a remarkable figure for a station in central Scotland, where summer days often stay well below that threshold, and it reflects a brief but intense spell of warm weather that has not been matched in any July since — at least not in the records extending through the end of 2001.
To give that number some perspective: a July day of 28.0 °C at Aberfoyle is the kind of reading you would associate with a heatwave pushing up from the south, bringing clear skies and strong sunshine to the region. For comparison, the station sits in the Trossachs, an area more accustomed to maritime breezes and cloudier conditions. The fact that this record was set in the early 1970s — before the more recent decades of generally warmer summers — makes it all the more notable: the hottest July day in this series belongs to a summer that most people would not expect to top a modern heat record.
The table below summarises the key figures from the official Met Office MIDAS archive for Aberfoyle (station ID 00197). The series begins on 1 January 1968 and runs through to 1 October 2001, giving us over three decades of daily observations to examine. Within that window, the July maximum temperature record is unambiguous:
| Metric | Value | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Highest July maximum temperature | 28.0 °C | 21 July 1972 |
| Earliest date with data in the series | — | 1 January 1968 |
| Latest date with data in the series | — | 1 October 2001 |
Note that the period of record covers 1968 through 2001. A record set in 1972 means that, for the 29 subsequent July months in this series — from 1973 through 2001 — no day surpassed 28.0 °C. The figure stands as the definitive July heat record for this measuring point, and it is the number to cite when asking what the hottest July day looks like in the Glasgow area, based on the nearest official station.
When people ask about the July heat record in Glasgow, they often expect a modern date — perhaps 2018, 2020, or 2022, years that brought notable heatwaves to the UK. The reality at the nearest official station is different: the record belongs to 21 July 1972. The reading of 28.0 °C that day is a reminder that exceptional summer warmth is not a purely recent phenomenon. It does not mean Glasgow itself reached exactly that temperature, but it is the strongest signal we have from an officially maintained, long-running station in the vicinity.
If you are planning an outdoor event in July near Glasgow, or simply curious about how extreme the weather can get, this figure sets the benchmark. No July in the 1968–2001 series produced a higher maximum at Aberfoyle. That is the honest, verifiable answer from the data.
All values presented here come from the official Met Office MIDAS (Integrated Data Archive System) dataset, held at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) and published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The specific station used is Aberfoyle, in Perthshire, at 28 metres altitude. The period analysed is 1968–2001, which is the full span of daily records available for this station in the MIDAS archive. No calculations have been made beyond what the archive provides; the temperature and dates are stated exactly as recorded.
Source: Met Office MIDAS data, Aberfoyle station, period 1968–2001.
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© 2026 HistoClima · data: Met Office (OGL v3.0) · not affiliated with Met Office · citation permitted with source.