The Met Office has issued an urgent “danger to life” weather warning – with three parts of the UK worst affected.

The national forecaster has issued the yellow alert for Wales, the West Midlands and North West England.

The warning is in place for 10 hours from 1pm on Thursday until 11pm.

The Met Office is warning that “spray and flooding” could lead to difficult driving conditions and some road closures, while train and bus services could be cancelled, sparking travel chaos around the UK.

There is also a small chance of flooding causing a risk of “danger to life”, while some communities could become cut off by flooded roads. Power cuts are also a possibility.

The Met Office weather warnings adds: “An area of heavy rain is expected to move west across parts of England and then into Wales during today.

“There remains some uncertainty as to how far north or south this band of rain will be, but there is a small chance that it will become slow-moving over parts of the West Midlands and northwest England, as well as into Wales later this afternoon and early evening. Should this happen then some places could see 40-60 mm of rain falling in 3-6 hours.”

Weather maps on WX Charts reveal that this afternoon, a giant wall of rain will sweep over the English Channel, settling in western parts of the British Isles, with temperatures remaining mild – hovering between 13C and 16C in the areas impacted by the weather warning.