Met Office forecasts 500-mile band of rain to drench 8 areas of UK on Thursday - full list

Met Office forecasts 500-mile band of rain to drench 8 areas of UK on Thursday - full list Met Office weather maps show a huge band of rain set to drench large parts of the UK on Thursday this week. While some areas will be enjoying heatwave threshold temperatures of up to 30C, other areas are set to face more damp conditions. Forecast maps show a 500 mile band of rain covering large swathes of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northern England and North Wales for much of Thursday. The south of England could see thunderstorms on Thursday evening too, after a day of hot and humid temperatures. Speaking on the Met Office YouTube channel, Alex Burkill said: "It's worth highlighting that there's the potential for some thunderstorms to kick off across parts of the southeast later on Thursday through the evening in particular because of that hot, humid air coming in from the south, but that's only a low risk at the moment. "Now, there is a fair amount of rain to come through this week, and most of it is coming in from the west southwest, but actually day by day, where we see the heaviest rain that actually changes. So, there will be some heavy, persistent rain feeding eastwards across southern parts of England through Wednesday. And then that front on Thursday pushes northwards bringing rain across Northern Ireland, parts of Western Northern Wales, Northern England, and Scotland." Despite the heavy, persistent rain, overall rainfall totals are likely to remain fairly low. He said: "It is going to be a bit soggy at times, but rainfall totals through the whole week don't look especially high. Some places could get in excess of 50 millimeters perhaps, but that's not a huge amount of rain. In fact, some people will be quite glad to get some rain at this time of year." Weather maps show the band of rain covering Ireland and Northern Ireland and parts of West Scotland from 6am on Thursday. By 10am almost all of Scotland and Northern Ireland will be under the band of rain which will spread across North West England, with particularly heavy patches over Cumbria. This is set to continue for most of the day with the band of rain travelling eastwards and covering the North East by 1pm. At this point, the band of rain will stretch over 500 miles from North Wales to Northern Scotland. By 4pm Northern Ireland should be in the clear, with the heaviest rain showers forecast over Cumbria, the Pennines, and parts of the North East. Full list of areas set to see persistent heavy rain showers on Thursday: - Northern Ireland - North Wales - Northern West England - North East England - Scotland - Northern Scotland - Eastern Scotland - Western Scotland Potential for Thunderstorms on Thursday evening: - South East England