A yellow weather warning has been issued for parts of Scotland overnight as “heavy and quite persistent rain” is forecast to fall in parts of Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Highlands.

20-30 mm of rain is predicted to fall in a 12-hour period across a swathe of the country including Stonehaven, Aberdeen, Fraserborough, Banff, Elgin, Alness, Inverness and Aviemore.

The yellow warning is in place between 10pm on Friday and 10am on Saturday.

Forecasters have warned of the possibility of localised flooding and disruption to travel, with surface water and spray on roads causing difficult driving conditions.

Frank Saunders, a chief meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “An area of heavy and quite persistent rain will develop across parts of north and northeast Scotland later on Friday evening. This will continue overnight before turning showery on Saturday morning.

“It is possible that 20-30mm of rain is likely to fall quite widely in around 12 hours, but there could even be up to 50mm in a few areas.”

Elsewhere, overnight a band of heavy rain is expected to move northwards from southwest England to central and eastern England, resulting in wet roads and spray, with further heavy showers also expected in parts of northern and western Wales.

Once the overnight rain clears, the country was in for a generally unsettled and cool weekend, with almost all areas expected to see showers – some potentially heavy and thundery – at some point.

Sunny spells would provide some respite between showers, during which temperatures could reach 19C in some areas but were generally expected to be below average for the time of year.