IT SEEMS more like winter than spring with snow, hail and lightning storms hitting Dorset in recent days. 

But don't leave your wellies at home just yet- the bank holiday weekend is set to be another bizarre weather mixed bag.

On Tuesday, snow, sleet, hail, thunder and lightning hit the area in brief showers before giving way to sunshine.

Speaking about the snow on Tuesday, a Met Office spokesman said: "There are widespread showers across the whole country at the moment.

"It's a wintry mix so some of its more sleet and snow and there's quite a bit of hail and thunder, it's real April showers.

"In terms of snow this late on in the month of April, it is fairly rare but not unheard of.

"We had particularly snowy scenes in 1981 this late on.

"The good thing is at this time of year the sun is quite strong and the ground temperatures are fairly high so the chances of it sticking are fairly low."

Yesterday (Wednesday) saw blue skies return, interspersed with showers, but as for much of the spring a chill stayed in the air with temperatures of around nine degrees.

Temperatures over the last few days have been below average for this time of year as they were in March.

The Met Office spokesman said: “Temperatures yesterday and today (Tuesday and Wednesday) were below average for this time of year. 

Yesterday (Tuesday) Dorset saw highs around 10 degrees and temperatures are looking similar today. The average for the time of year is around 14 degrees.

“Dorset’s mean temperature for March was 6.2 degrees which is 0.6 degrees below average, and for the first half of April it was 8.4 degrees which is 0.1 degrees below average. 

“We won’t have full April stats until later next week but as you can see temperatures have been below average and with the cold spells we’ve had of late it’s very likely that April will be a colder than average month for Dorset.”

Organisers of events including the Weymouth Kite Festival, Dorset Knob Throwing and various May Day festivities will be hoping for an improvement. 

Speaking about the weekend ahead, the spokesman said: “Friday through to Sunday should then be mostly dry with some sunshine, perhaps the best of this on Saturday, and only a small chance of some isolated showers. 

“Temperatures will return closer to normal for the time of year so it will feel pleasant in the sunshine. Monday is looking more unsettled with rain through the morning, then showers possible later.”