Summers are warmest in the southeast of England and coolest in the north. Atlantic currents, warmed by the Gulf Stream, bring mild winters especially in the west where winters are wet and even more so over high ground. The prevailing wind is from the southwest and bears frequent spells of mild and wet weather from the Atlantic Ocean, although the eastern parts are mostly sheltered from this wind since the majority of the rain falls over the western regions the eastern parts are therefore the driest. Higher elevations in Scotland experience a continental subarctic climate (Dfc) and the mountains experience a tundra climate (ET). Some parts, away from the coast, of upland England, Wales, Northern Ireland and most of Scotland, experience a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc). The temperature varies with the seasons seldom dropping below 0 ☌ (32 ☏) or rising above 30 ☌ (86 ☏). Most of the United Kingdom has a temperate climate, with generally cool temperatures and plentiful rainfall all year round.

Lowland areas – especially the narrow waist of land between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth known as the Central Belt – are flatter and home to most of the population including Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, and Edinburgh, its capital and political centre, although upland and mountainous terrain lies within the Southern Uplands. The more rugged Highland region contains the majority of Scotland's mountainous land, including Ben Nevis which at 1,345 metres (4,413 ft) is the highest point in the British Isles. The fault separates two distinctively different regions namely the Highlands to the north and west and the Lowlands to the south and east. Scotland is the most mountainous country in the UK and its topography is distinguished by the Highland Boundary Fault – a geological rock fracture – which traverses Scotland from Arran in the west to Stonehaven in the east. This includes nearly 800 islands, predominantly west and north of the mainland notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands.

Scotland accounts for just under one-third (32 per cent) of the total area of the UK, covering 78,772 square kilometres (30,410 sq mi).

Topographic elevation map