Several cities could face torrential rain and storms on Friday after the Met Office issues a yellow thunderstorm warning tonight. The thunderstorm warning is in place from 6pm until midnight on Thursday, with heavy rains forecast across the UK until Friday morning.

Met Office meteorologist Clare Nasir said the air was “primed for thunderstorms through this evening and overnight” after a period of unusually hot weather and humidity. She said the wet weather was “likely to migrate towards central southern England” and the West Country in particular. “Expect some torrential downpours, gusty winds as well as lightning,” she said.

At 10pm, the rain will move in from both north and south, with a plume over Wales and some showery rain on the north and west of Scotland, perhaps just clipping Northern Ireland.

Forecaster Nasir said temperatures will fall “very, very slowly” for another uncomfortable night of sleep, as we see thunderstorms and downpours extend across the country into the early hours of Friday morning.

Wales will see the worst of the rain in the small hours of Friday morning, with heavy downpours hitting the south over Cardiff from 2am, and moving northwards over the English border area until about 6am.

In Scotland, a band of rain will strike through the centre and over Fort William at 2.15am before sweeping northwards. By 6.30am on Friday, the south of Scotland will have heavy showers over Edinburgh and sweeping up over Glasgow and Aberdeen.

It will also be a wet night in England, with showers moving over the West Country overnight and reaching up to Liverpool on the west coast, and settling over Northumberland at around 6.30am.

Belfast could wake up to extremely heavy rain on Friday morning, around 7am, with red rain maps indicating heavy rainfall.

By 9.30am, the majority of England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be largely dry, according to the maps, though a large band of showers will hang over Scotland.

The forecast for Friday is “rather cloudy across northern regions with outbreaks of rain and thunderstorms, accompanied by hail and gusty winds”. The peak heat will transfer to eastern England, with temperatures further west dropping slightly, the Met Office said.

List of cities set to have rain