A spectacular rainbow follows heavy rain around Little Ensdon, near Shrewsbury. Picture: Bob Greaves

It was supposed to be a night of ghouls and frights – but this spectacular rainbow illuminating the county’s sky paints a rather different picture.

The magnificent scene was captured by Shropshire Star photographer Bob Greaves at Little Ensdon, near Shrewsbury, on Halloween evening.

The deep colours arch across the sky as autumnal darkness creeps in.

The rainbow followed heavy downpours in the area.

But the weather later improved for trick-or-treaters who enjoyed unseasonably high temperatures.

Residents today woke up with a brighter outlook with warm spells forecast throughout the day across the county, though there may be some showers throughout the morning.

Clear skies are anticipated this evening with temperatures holding out at around 10 degrees.

Tomorrow looks like being mostly cloudy with the sun only managing to break through in the early morning.

Rain is expected to return on Thursday and Friday before a wet weekend.

Meanwhile latest figures show temperatures soared in October with a record high for the month of 85F (29.9C). The top temperature was recorded on October 1 in Swanscombe, Kent, which basked in 165 hours of sunshine this month, an average of more than five a day.

The previous hottest October day was 84F (29.4C), recorded in Cambridgeshire in 1985.

Overall, Britain enjoyed its warmest October for five years and its seventh warmest since records began, according to weather historian Philip Eden, for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association.

The balmy autumn was relatively dry too, with average rainfall of 64mm for the month and less than 20mm in the East Midlands, East Anglia and the north Home Counties.

This made it drier than three out of four of the last 100 Octobers.

It was sunnier than three-quarters of all Octobers in the last 100 years, with an average of 123 hours of sunshine for England and Wales, and 69 hours for Scotland.

The average maximum temperature for October ranged from 64F (18.1C) at Heathrow, Kew Gardens, St James’s Park and Olympic Park South in London to 51F (10.5C) at Dalwhinnie, Inverness-shire.