After a cool start of around three degrees, Sunday was tipped to be the warmest day of the week with a top of 21 degrees - well above the long-term autumn average maximum temperature of 16.

"The coolest days look to be Tuesday or possibly Wednesday when we may see temperatures return to near average, maybe a degree or two warmer," Weatherzone meteorologist Kim Westcott said.

"[But] it is warming up rather quickly under those sunny skies."

Last Tuesday, Canberra enjoyed a warmer than average overnight minimum temperature when it only dipped as low as 8.8 degrees – about six degrees above average.

But Wednesday night dropped to a chilly 0.2 degrees, and the cool nights were likely to be repeated in the coming week with this Wednesday also likely to have the coldest, frostiest start.

"Most mornings are looking to be cool and crisp, the warmest morning looks to be around Monday when the minimum will be about nine degrees," Ms Westcott said.

"But there's a forecast of minus-one on Wednesday, that's when you've got a cold front passing to the south, all the skies have cleared up and we'll see that temperature plummet."

After a nine-day dry spell as of Friday, prospects for rain were looking unlikely until Thursday, Ms Westcott said, when there was a chance of up to 10 millimetres of rain.

So far for the month Canberra has had 43.6 mm of rain - just reaching its May average of 43mm.

Jenny Dettrick is one Canberran who's been talking advantage of the warmer than average autumn days, capturing the "glowing" afternoon sunlight in a photo of her four-year-old son Ben Ubrihien playing in the family's backyard in Macgregor.

"We've got this poor little overgrown tree with these gorgeous autumn leaves that shine just when the sun hits the horizon… the way the leaves light up is just beautiful," she said of her entry in The Canberra Times photo competition.

Ben and little brother Joshua, 1, love playing in the garden's autumn leaves and pretending they're in the jungle, Ms Dettrick said.

"We've had some beautiful autumn days," she said.

The Canberra Times photo competition is open until May 31. Photographers are invited to send their best autumn photos in for the chance to win $1000 of prizes, as well as have their work published.

To enter, send a maximum of three photos to photocomp@canberratimes.com.au as attached JPEG files and include your name, address, phone number, photo title, a description of the photo and the date it was taken.

Photos must be at least 150 kilobytes and should not carry a watermark. Have a look at the other entries in the competition here.

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