We then nipped across to Weymouth via the largest hills in the area which turned out to be the steepest almost crippling our antique car. The cloud base this day was extremely low and we soon found ourselves literally in the clouds! An experience we hadn’t had for a long time but hard to capture on camera!

We travelled onwards to Martinstown which holds the UK rainfall record set in 1955 of 11 inches in 24 hours to add some meteorological historic value to our road trip. On talking to locals, UK Storm Chasers found out that although Martinstown encountered the huge deluge of rain, the town of Upwey further downstream suffered flooding on an almost unprecedented scale. One young villager died and many buildings in the town were destroyed. We visited a church over 10m above the river level to observe the flood damage caused to the pews. UK Storm Chasers also spoke to villagers to recall their first hand experience of the flood. In a bizarre moment we were handed a phone to talk to an old lady who spoke to us for over 20min and who would have been willing to speak for a lot longer. UK Storm Chasers may follow this up in future and write an article for a local newspaper which will log this incredible event in the UK’s meteorological past to its full extent.

In a final twist to the day the steep hills had taken its toll on the car and on the return journey it packed in!