Rail travel and football affected by heavy rain

Elgin was one of the towns in the north east which were affected by flooding

Parts of Scotland remain at risk of flooding despite heavy rain easing off.

The Scottish environment protection agency (Sepa) have two active flood warnings for Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City and Findhorn, Nairn, Moray and Speyside.

Flooding affected some roads in and around Peterhead and Aberdeen FC's pre-season friendly in the town was moved to Aberdeen in the interest of fans' safety.

Network Rail Scotland said train speeds had been reduced on short sections of the Perth to Inverness, Dundee to Aberdeen and Aberdeen to Inverness routes until 07:00 on Thursday following an "extreme rainfall forecast".

BBC Scotland Weather said data gathered from weather stations suggested that almost a month's worth of rain had fallen around Peterhead and Fraserburgh.

Flooding in Peterhead

The Met Office had issued a yellow "be aware" warning for heavy rain for parts of Aberdeenshire until 04:00 on Thursday.

The area covered by the warning was warned of rainfall accumulations of 25mm to 40mm, and up to 60mm over high ground.

The Met Office warning is no longer active.

Network Rail Scotland said slowing down train speeds was done for safety reasons.

Peterhead FC said it was disappointed not to be able to host its friendly against Aberdeen.

The club said on Wednesday: "Unfortunately our optimism from this morning was short-lived as we have now had to make the difficult decision to call this game off.

"Although the pitch has held up well, the surrounding roads are now flooding and therefore a safety hazard for fans.

"This is not something we thought we needed to be concerned about in July and apologise to all those who may have already set off for this match."

The game did later take place in Aberdeen.

BBC Scotland Weather said data gathered from weather stations around nearby Fraserburgh suggested almost a month's worth of rain had fallen during Wednesday.

Why has it been so wet?

Unsettled conditions dominated the weather in June and again in July, so far.

The average mean temperature for June was 12.9C, which was 0.4C below the long-term meteorological average.

Also, northern Scotland recorded above average amounts of rainfall. It had 122mm of rain, 32% more than its average for June.

It was cold enough in early June and July for snow to fall on some of Scotland's highest mountains.

The weather has been affected by the position of the jet stream, a strong current of air in the upper troposphere, about five to seven miles above the Earth's surface.

It has been in a west to north-westerly orientation across the North Atlantic, resulting in Scotland often being either under, or more commonly, on the cold side of the jet stream.