A YELLOW weather warning for rain has been issued for the South West on Sunday evening.

The warning will run from midnight on Sunday until 9am on Monday.

A Met Office spokesperson said: "Further rain, heavy at times, is expected to spread quickly eastwards across southwest England on Sunday night and into Monday morning.

"Rainfall totals are expected to be widely 15 to 20mm, but as much as 40 to 50mm over windward coasts and hills.

"With ground already saturated over much of this region, the public should be aware of the risk of further local flooding.

"In addition, strong winds gusting up to 60 mph over more-exposed locations will accompany the rain."

Police in the Bridport area warned motorists to drive carefully as high winds have brought down trees in Burton Bradstock and Wootton Fitzpaine.

Forecasters are warning of more wet weather misery after the calmer Boxing Day weather turned to rain and gusting winds overnight.

South West Trains will today run a Saturday service pattern, but a revised timetable will run due to major engineering work at London Waterloo.

This work will affect services throughout the South West Trains area and all passengers should check their journey details before travelling.

Trains to Weymouth will run to and from London Waterloo but make additional stops with longer journey times. Some services will start earlier than normal from London Waterloo.

A spokesperson said: "Following the adverse weather experienced across the South of England on Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 December when over 140 trees fell and there was flooding at nine separate locations, maintenance teams have worked through Christmas Day and Boxing Day to carry out repairs.

"Most routes are now running, there has been some delay to services while routes have been re-checked for obstructions."

In the east of the county water levels on the River Stour had receded  but a severe flood warning was still in place by the Environment Agency for Iford Bridge Home Park and Beaulieu Garden Park Home site.

There were also flood warnings in place for eight other locations across Dorset including the Lower Stour at Sturminster Marshall to Christchurch, Jumpers, Canford and Redhill, and the Middle Stour from Sturminster Newton to Sturminster Marshall and the Lower Frome from East Stoke to Wareham.

More than 100 residents were evacuated from their mobile homes at Iford and Christchurch.

The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for midnight until 9pm on Friday for heavy rain.

A spokesperson said: “Spells of rain affecting the UK late Thursday and Friday are expected to be heavy at times with 10 to 20 mm expected to fall quite widely.

“Locally in excess of 30 mm is likely over parts of Wales, Northern Ireland and southern England by mid-morning whilst more than 40 mm are expected over parts of Scotland and northern England.

“The public should be aware of the potential for disruption, especially where ground is already saturated and where high winds are combined with heavy rainfall.”

The chief forecaster said: “Another deep area of low pressure developing over the Atlantic Ocean will bring another spell of wet and windy weather across the UK as it tracks northeastwards past northwestern Britain later on Thursday and during Friday.

“Relative to recent storms that have affected the UK, Friday's depression is looking less intense and the extent of associated impacts are currently thought to be less severe. However, at this stage there remain some uncertainties concerning the track and depth of this storm and this warning will be re-assessed and updated today.

Simon Parker, emergency planning officer at Dorset County Council said: “For us the majority of the problems came on Christmas Eve although Christmas Day it has impacted on the Bournemouth side.

“We were dealing with the area around Ferndown with the caravan parks on Christmas Day and managed to re-house about 30 of them but a lot of them ended up going to a local furniture store - David Phipps - before they were taken back to the day centre overnight.

“One farmer had around 130 sheep washed away down the Stour and services helped to deal with that, collecting the sheep down the River Stour.

“The rain that is forecast for Friday is going to be fairly intense, falling onto already saturated land and the effects of this could mean the situation worsens because of that.

“Where there are already swollen rivers and the ground is saturated, this could mean a repeat of what we have seen.

"It's a situation which is being closely monitored by all our staff and I would like to thank them for their efforts this week.”