Met Office weather maps show when torrential downpours will hit Manchester with TWELVE hours of heavy rain forecast

Greater Manchester is set to be lashed by torrential downpours on Friday morning with TWELVE hours of heavy rain forecast, which could cause misery during the morning rush hour.

The Met Office's weather maps show heavy rain sweeping across the region from the early hours of tomorrow morning.

It comes after much of Manchester saw some bright sunshine in recent days following warmer than usual weather over last weekend. But forecasters have warned that much cooler temperatures will hit the UK as the week goes on, with some predicting that the first snow of the season could fall in some isolated areas.

READ MORE: Met Office issues rain weather warning for Greater Manchester

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The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for rain covering the south of the UK up to Lancashire between 9pm tonight and 8pm tomorrow. The weather service has warned that heavy rain and strong winds may cause some disruption to travel during Friday.

The heaviest rainfall looks set to hit the north west region between 6am and 10am when much of Greater Manchester will see more than 8mm of rainfall an hour. The Met Office classes heavy rain as anything above 4 mm per hour

By the afternoon, the worst of the rain is likely to have passed but showers are forecast for the rest of the day and into Saturday daytime, before a cooler but dry day on Sunday.

However, the worst of Friday's wet weather is expected to hit further south. Around two inches of rain could fall in parts of southern England and Wales, according to the Met Office.

Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said: “We’re saying there is a significant rain warning from 9pm on Thursday through to midnight on Friday, and we