Earlier this week, the Met Office released a report on the UK’s climate, which said that weather once considered extreme was becoming the “new normal”.

Scientists say that the country’s climate is “on the move” as northern areas of Britain now see warmer temperatures that used to only affect southern England.

Michael Byrne, a climate scientist at St Andrews University, told the BBC’s Radio Scotland Breakfast the fire followed on from Scotland’s first ‘megafire’ which destroyed a vast area of moorland last year.

The fire on Dava Moor, around Grantown-on-Spey and Forres, started on 28 June and burned for four days. It is thought it destroyed as much land as typically burns across the UK in an entire year.

“What we see on the global scale is an increasing burned area associated with wildfires which has a strong fingerprint of climate change,” he said.

“In Scotland we are seeing more rainfall during the winter and milder temperatures which are great conditions for growing lots of vegetation. When that vegetation dies there’s now more of it in a warming climate so there’s more to burn.”

He said Scotland had warmed more than one degree since pre-industrial times.

“That warmer air sucks more moisture out of dead vegetation making that vegetation much more flammable.”

If you see a large outdoor fire, call 999 immediately. Give the location and any other relevant information so fire crews can respond quickly.