A SECOND swathe of heavy rain is expected to sweep across Dorset this evening.

The Met Office has issued another yellow weather warning - meaning be aware - for rain, which is in force between 6pm today and 9am tomorrow.

A spokesperson for the Met Office said: "An area of rain will run across southern parts of England and Wales on Saturday evening and overnight into Sunday.

"With the ground very wet in these areas this is likely to lead to rising water levels and some flooding in places.

"This is most likely on Sunday morning with some very heavy rain possible for a time. 15-25 mm of rain is likely with some spots seeing 30-40 mm - much of this falling in 3 hours or so on Sunday morning."

It follows a bout of heavy rain and strong winds yesterday morning, which led to blocked roads, power cuts, and cancelled ferry services.

Lightning was reported by many readers across the area on Friday morning including Swanage where Andy Lyons captured this dramatic footage. 

1,200 homes in Swanage were left without power. 

Samantha O’Connor, a spokesperson for SSEN, said: “We would like to apologise to all of those affected by the powercut in Swanage..”

Brittany Ferries moved yesterday’s sailing from Poole to Cherbourg to the earlier time of 7am due to the weather conditions.

Today’s service has also been brought forward. The Condor Liberation sailing from Poole was cancelled. 

The Condor Liberation sailing from Poole at 9.15am was cancelled on Friiday along with the 4.25pm service from Guernsey due to adverse weather. 

A flood alert was issued for Christchurch Harbour which was in force for two hours after high tide at 9.15am. 

There were reports of surface water on the road between Bear Cross and Gravel Hill, on the A35 between Bere Regis and Upton and on Hayes Lane in Colehill

Flooding was reported on the A35 Barrack Road in Christchurch near the old police station.

In Wareham, a fallen tree brought down telephone cables in Grange Road between the Springfield Country Hotel and the railway bridge. 

In the New Forest, a property in East Boldre suffered a large amount of tornado-style damage, with dramatic images showing most of the bricks from its roof blown out and scattered below.

The Met Office said at around 8.30am in Southampton, just 14 miles from the detached property, a gust of wind measuring 70mph was recorded.

Grahame Madge, a spokesman for the forecaster, said: "With thunderstorms and those sorts of systems you get rapidly rising and falling air.

"So it could have been convection that caused the problem (and damage to the house), rather than it being a typical tornado."
He said a tornado cannot be ruled out, but this phenomenon is usually associated with much warmer weather during the summer.

There were reports of a fallen tree on Sway Road in Lymington which is blocking the road on the A337 between Highcliffe and New Milton

Drivers were being urged to avoid Sway Road at Buckland on the double bends near Lymington due to a fallen tree and cable lines. 

While a train travelling from Bournemouth to Southampton was forced to stop between Beaulieu Road and Ashurst after hitting a tree on the line. 

The driver inspected the train before continuing.