WEYMOUTH and Portland Borough Council weatherman Bob Poots said that the snowy conditions were the worst Weymouth had seen for many years.

He said: “It’s been about 15 years since the snow was this bad. We had 5cm overnight.

“We had quite a deep snowfall in 1994-1995 but we don’t normally get snow like this.

“The two bad winters of 1947 and 1963 both had their first snow fall about November 20. It’s quite possible that, although it’s meant to be getting warmer towards the weekend, we could be in for a cold winter.”

He added: “Although it’s snowing it’s not that cold. The lowest air temperature we have had was minus two degrees.

“The ground temperature has been lower, at minus five in Weymouth and minus eight in Bincombe. It has been very unseasonable weather for Dorset.”

Apart from the snowfalls of 1994-1995, the most recent bad winter has been ‘the big freeze of 1982’, which brought hurricane-strength winds and heavy snow and ice on the roads.

In 1978 Dorset was cut off from the rest of the country by the worst blizzard in 100 years.

However, the snowfall in December 1962 and January 1963 was thought by many to be worse as it left snow on the ground for 62 consecutive nights.

Before this came the great freeze-up of 1947, which led to all-day electricity cuts, and disruption to schools and public transport.