DORSET saw the driest September since records began and its warmest since 1959.

Weymouth weatherman Bob Poots said this year was the driest since records began in 1880, with an average rainfall of just 4.7mm compared to the 30-year average of 56.4mm.

The wettest day was Wednesday, September 24 with 1.7mm and rainfall was recorded on the 1st, 24th and last two days of the month. The total rainfall for 2014 so far is 684.8mm – that’s 206.8mm above the 30-year average.

The area experienced more hours of sunshine with 173 hours and 6 minutes, just exceeding the 30-year average of 171 hours and 36 minutes.

The sunniest day was Wednesday, September 10 with 10 hours and 48 minutes of sunshine and the sun shone on all but two days during the month. The total hours of sunshine for 2014 are currently 1,914 hours and 54 minutes.

This is 353 hours and 54 minutes above the 30-year average.

There was one incident where thunder and lightning was observed on Friday, September 19 at 5.45am.

There were no frosts, hail or snow and the wind was mainly from the east with only two gusts of 20mph recorded on Tuesday, September 16 and Wednesday, September 17.

Mr Poots said: “September is one of those months that takes us by surprise, as September 2014 certainly did, often mistakenly called an Indian summer, it was the warmest since the 22.0 degrees of 1959, and the driest since our records began in 1880, just coming in at 1.2mm less than 2003.”