Britain is set to be battered by a huge rain bomb next week, with London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Cardiff, Glasgow and Edinburgh among 15 major cities facing torrential downpours. WXCharts weather maps using ECMWF data show the massive wall of rain sweeping across the UK on Monday, June 1, as deep orange and red weather bands engulf parts of northern England and Scotland in some of the wettest conditions shown on the charts.

The storms are forecast to begin pushing into parts of Britain from around 10am BST before intensifying by 1pm BST. The maps, valid at 9am and 12pm UTC, show intense downpours sweeping from southern England through the Midlands and into Scotland, with the huge rain band stretching roughly 500 miles across Britain as it tracks northwards. The heaviest rain appears concentrated across parts of Yorkshire, northeast England and eastern Scotland, where orange and red weather markers indicate some of the strongest precipitation rates on the maps.

At 12pm, the most severe burst is centred over northeast England and southeast Scotland, with surrounding areas drenched by widespread bands of heavy rain and showers.

WXCharts maps show intense rain sweeping across parts of the UK, while widespread blue and green weather bands signal prolonged wet conditions for much of Britain.

The wet weather is being driven by an area of low pressure moving across the UK.

Scotland appears particularly exposed, with repeated clusters of rain and showers pushing across the country throughout the morning and into the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Wales, northwest England and parts of the Midlands are also forecast to see lengthy periods of rain as the huge weather front slowly tracks northeast.

Southern and southeastern England appear likely to avoid the very worst of the conditions initially, although scattered showers and lighter rain are still visible on the charts.

The latest maps come after a mixed spell of spring weather across Britain, with forecasters continuing to monitor the potential for further unsettled conditions into early June.

While exact rainfall totals may still change over the coming days, the latest ECMWF projections suggest millions could face a soggy start to the new month as the giant rain bomb barrels across the country.

The Met Office weather forecast for June 1-10 says: "A changeable period, as a sequence of Atlantic weather systems move in from the west to bring a mixture of drier spells and some showers or longer spells of rain at times.

"The best of the drier conditions are more likely towards the south and east, with the rain generally more frequent in parts of the west and northwest, although there will be drier interludes here also.

"Temperatures will be near-normal overall, with the warmest spots most likely across eastern areas. It will also be breezy at times, most especially across northwestern areas."