Dorset's weather in 2023: Temperatures rise and rain falls

Records were been broken in terms of both heat and rainfall in 2023 - and the extreme storms in the autumn caused chaos to residents and businesses across the county.

Storm Ciarán swept its way through, causing '15 years’ worth of erosion in just one day at Hive Beach in west Dorset', whilst areas of Weymouth and Bridport saw massive amounts of flood water after torrential rain and rivers bursting banks.

The new year year meanwhile has seen more floods chaos and then a very cold snap.

Despite all the rain and the wind in 2023, it is the rising temperatures that has Weymouth's weather expert most worried.

“It is the increase in temperature that has been startling,” explains Roger Willis. “The last few months have been well above average.”

The year 2023 did not start out all too warm though; January saw cold weather warnings issued across the county that led to black ice causing multiple crashes that caused parts of the A37 and A35 to close.

Radipole Lane in January 2023 (Image: Rebecca Hignett)

Torrential rain also fell during the month that saw cars submerged, particularly in Weymouth where Radipole Lane looked like a river as the deluge of water came down.

The cold weather persisted through to March leaving a blanket of snow across the county in particular in the north near Shaftesbury.

Gold Hill in Shafesbury (Image: Graham Hunt Photography)

As April came around, so do the wind and rain again forcing the filming of the Star Wars series Andor to cancel filming due to the risk of rock falls and landslips near at Winspit Quarry near Worth Matravers.

The rain continued into early May which forced several of the King’s Coronation celebration to be cancelled, including a youth festival on Weymouth Beach and the Coronation fete in Lyme Regis.

Roger goes on to say that 3.3 inches of rain were recorded in March, April and May which was above the ten year average.

“The year 2023 has seen a change in rainfall in quite a dramatic way,” Roger goes on to say.

Clockwise from top left, enjoying the June sunshine at Chesil Rocks, on Weymouth Beach and at the Wessex Folk Festival in June 2023 (Image: Graham Hunt Photography and NQ)

Once June came around the rain dried up – quite literally – as the driest one on record was recorded in Dorset.

The amount of sunshine totalled 344.7 hours for the month, breaking the record for Weymouth's previous sunniest June, which gave us 325.8 hours of sunshine in 1957, according to Roger’s records.

“Over the past three years we have been in a drier period of weather in the south and south west of the country and our reservoirs have seen record low levels, soils in gardens have been dry to their cultivable depth,” he added.

The hot weather was short lived though as July and August saw heavy rain and strong winds cancel several of the county festivals.

Jurassic Fields was forced to delay its opening as did the Great Dorset Chilli festival, whilst the inaugural Hogfest music and Cider festival was cancelled as was the Tolpuddle Martyrs festival.

It heated back up in September though as temperatures of nearly 27C led to a mini heatwave early in the month before thunderstorms caused thousands to lose power towards the end.

Early October also saw a mini heatwave with the unusual sight of barbecues being fired up on the beach.

Multiple properties have been damaged as a ‘mini tornado’ swept through Loders (Image: Bridport Fire Station)

Once autumn kicked in though the weather turned bad. Storm Babet blew through towards the middle of October, which was just the prelude for the big one.

“It has been the wettest October and November since the 1800s,” Roger revealed, although, many will have expected it to be as Storm Ciaran caused a lot of disruption as we entered November.

A mini Tornado flew through Loders whilst Freshwater Holiday Park was evacuated due to flood water.

Gurkha in Weymouth was flooded after Storm Ciaran blew through (Image: Graham Hunt Photography)

Chaos followed as businesses like the Gurkha in Weymouth and a carpet business in Sherborne suffered serious flooding.

Portland Beach Road was also forced to shut as the sea levels rose from the high winds.

A petition was even started to dredge Radipole Lake because the flooding in the area was so bad.

Roger adds that this may be something we will start having to get use to more often.

“With global warming giving rise to local climate change, we may expect to see greater variations in our weather and more specifically drier summers, wetter winters and stronger storms giving rise to heavier rainfalls and stronger winds,” he explains.

Hive Beach's wall was breached for the first time ever (Image: Cynthia Justham)

Hive Beach was also hit badly as 15 years of erosion occurred in just one day as the beach wall protecting the car park was breached for the first time in its history. 

All in all the county took a battering this autumn.

It would not end there though as we entered December parts of Bridport were left submerged as the River Brit burst its banks following more heavy rainfall.

The town’s football club was left under several feet of water as was the Groves Nursery and Garden Centre.

Bridport Football Club is completly submerged after the River Brit burst its banks (Image: Adrian Scadding) (Image: Adrian Scadding)

A landslip in Netherbury also forced a road to close as the extreme weather conditions took its toll on an already soggy landscape from the autumn storms.

“Weymouth started the year with a rainfall annual deficit of 70.2 mms. The year ended with an annual rainfall surplus of 210 mms or over eight inches," Roger explains

“Apart from rainfall the year`s records have also given above average temperatures during the year for many days including and especially this December which apart from the first week has recorded above 12 .0c all month with rain recorded on all but three days.

“In recording weather over the last eight years there has been a definite sign of weather changing which we should all be aware of and prepare for.”