DORSET has been warned to expect heavy rain from noon onwards today.

The Met Office is warning heavy rain will move across the region this afternoon and it could cause localised flooding.

The warning area is for people living within the local authority areas of Bournemouth, Poole, Dorset and Wiltshire.

It is valid from 12noon today until 11pm tonight.

A spokesperson said: “An active trough of low pressure will move eastwards across the southern half of the UK during Friday, bringing areas of heavy rain and also the risk of strong winds or gales to exposed coastal parts of Sussex and Kent during the early evening.

“Despite the likelihood of some heavy rain across other central and southern parts of England at first, the main risk of localised surface water flooding is within the warning area, where 5-10 mm of rain is possible within an hour and locally 20-30 mm within 4 hours.”

The Environment Agency has also issued a low-risk flood alert for the area.