TORRENTIAL rain and thunder has finally hit Dorset as days of hot and humid weather that has seen temperatures of more than 30C.

People have been taking to social media to share footage of heavy rain across the conurbation.

The Met Office has weather warnings in force for the county up until Monday.

The yellow warning for today says: “Areas of thunderstorms are expected to develop over Wales and parts of England during Thursday. Some intense thunderstorms seem likely, associated with torrential rain, large hail and frequent lightning, as well as strong gusty winds.

Yep Bargates at the moment pic.twitter.com/sAOLRH4FsS

Heavy rain is creating flooding on the roads across the area including Christchurch.

Bournemouth Echo:

"Rainfall totals of 30-40 mm could fall in less than an hour, and a few unlucky locations could receive 60-80 mm in 3 hours. There is even a very small chance of extremely high totals (exceeding 100 mm ) in three or four hours.”

For several days, temperatures have hit the low 30s with nights also remaining very warm.

Bournemouth & Poole Weather said despite the recent run of hot weather it did not match 1976 when temperatures reached 30C for 12 days consecutively at Hurn.