Europe enjoys fine start to autumn

The autumn equinox may have passed but the weather across much of Europe is still decidedly summery.

A large area of high pressure sits across central Europe bringing warm air from the south across western areas.

This has resulted in temperatures across much of the UK and France being five or six degrees Celsius above average.

On Saturday temperatures in London reached 21C, compared with a late September average of 17C. It was a similar story across the English Channel, with Paris seeing the mercury soar to 24C, 5C above average.

Not everywhere has seen sunny weather. Although the Ryder Cup tournament at Gleneagles, Perthshire has been played in fine weather conditions, weak weather fronts have brought cloud across much of Scotland.

Across more northern parts of the continent, with the winds blowing in from the west, temperatures have been much closer to average with Berlin and Copenhagen recording temperatures of 18C.

Further south, showers are affecting the Iberian Peninsula and there is the potential for some severe storms across the eastern coast of Spain and the Balearic Islands in the coming days.

In southeastern parts of the continent, a trough of low pressure has given some heavy rain which is now pushing through Turkey. This will bring some much needed rain across the eastern Mediterranean coastline in the next 24 hours.

Although the threat of cloud and rain will increase across the UK in coming days, the area of high pressure is expected to only migrate slowly eastwards, allowing the fine weather to continue in many areas.