Met Office issues new UK weather warning and extends another as downpours batter country

The Met Office has extended a weather warning - and issued a new one - as heavy downpours batter Greater Manchester.

A yellow rain warning, which covers all of our region, came into force at 6pm yesterday (Tuesday) and was due to last until 12pm today. The forecaster has now extended the warning to last until 9pm tonight.

The Met Office has also extended the warning area to further east, with parts of the East Midlands, other regions in the North West, parts of the South West, Wales and West Midlands included. The forecaster said: "Spells of heavy rain may lead to some travel disruption and flooding in places."

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On the details of the warning, the forecaster added: "Areas of heavy rain are expected to develop and push north across the warning area. The first area of rain will continue north this morning.

"Then a second area pushes northeastwards this afternoon before clearing during the evening. Many places will see around 10-20 mm of rain, but there is a chance some locations may see considerably more than this over a six hour period, most likely parts of southwest England and south Wales.

"A few places may see 50-80 mm of rain fall in six hours. Isolated thunderstorms are also possible in the south of the warning area, with lightning an additional hazard."

A new warning has also been issued to come into force at 12pm today and last until 11.59pm. This covers northern parts of our region, as well as much of the North East and Yorkshire and Humber.

The Met Office said: "Areas of rain, heavy in places, are likely to push north across the warning area, with a few places perhaps getting a longer spell of quite intense rainfall. If and where this happens, we could see 50-80 mm of rain falling within around six hours, although a lot of places will probably see closer to 20 mm. Isolated thunderstorms are possible."

In Greater Manchester, heavy showers are forecast until at least 1pm today. Forecasters predict the rain will then ease off slightly, though lighter showers are still expected.

Heavy downpours are then expected again from around 6pm and into the evening. Cloudier conditions will set in tomorrow morning with sunny intervals then forecast through the day.

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