People in the north and north-east are should make the most of this weekend’s sunny weather, as forecasters say autumn is just around the corner.
The warning comes as the Met Office revealed that Braemar was both the hottest and coldest place in the UK within the space of 24 hours earlier this week.
On Wednesday the Deeside village reached a peak of 24C during the day, before crashing down to -1.3C in the wee hours of yesterday’s.
Emma Sharples, spokeswoman for the Met Office, said it was typical weather for this time of year – but added a meteorological anomaly known as “inversion” was partly to blame.
This has led to high altitude areas such as Braemar and Aviemore being hotter than lower, coastal areas such as Aberdeen, Peterhead and Stonehaven.
Mrs Sharples said the fine weather would continue throughout the weekend across the north-east, Highlands and Islands despite the odd cloud.
She also warned there was “writing on the wall” for a weather depression coming in from the Atlantic next week.
Braemar reached a high of 22.7C yesterday whilst neighbouring Balmoral peaked at 21.5C and Inverness 20.6C.
However Aberdeen, Fort William and Stornoway did not reach much higher than 14C, whilst Peterhead and Elgin was about 15C.
She said: “Braemar had dropped to -1.3C and during the day time it had a high of 24C. This is quite common in the autumn months when the sun is still pretty warm but the air is not quite warm itself.
“These high temperatures have been at sites of elevation, Braemar, Aviemore and so on we have seen temperatures in excess of 20C. It is what we call an inversion. It is all to do with high pressure. It is fairly wide-spread.
“On Thursday (today) there is a little bit of cloud brushing up the east coast up to the north-east, but generally fine conditions up there as well.
“Temperatures are not quite as high in the Highlands, you are still looking at temperatures of mid to high tens and around -11C.
“There will be a bit more cloud starting to come in from the north and north-west and more western parts of Scotland.”
Temperatures were expected to drop to single figures again this morning across the north-east and north and reach no higher than 16C throughout today.