A WEATHER system set to bring winds of up to 80mph to Dorset this weekend has been named Storm Ciara.

The Met Office officially named the weather storm which is currently developing in the North Atlantic.

Storm Ciara will bring strong winds and heavy rain across the whole of the UK through the end of the weekend and into the start of next week.

Wind gusts of 50 to 60mph are expected across many inland areas, while the strongest gusts in exposed areas could reach 80mph.

The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for the whole country which is valid from 6pm on Saturday until around midnight on Sunday.

Neil Armstrong, a chief forecaster with the Met Office, said: “An extremely strong jet stream flowing from North America will be steering a succession of low-pressure systems towards the UK at least into the middle of next week. The relative predictability of this pattern has provided an early warning and has given us the certainty to be able to name this storm four days ahead.”

Mr Armstrong said that the next few days will see largely fine conditions for most of the UK before things become unsettled by Friday.

Saturday will be relatively dry for much of the UK, before strengthening winds and rain arrive from the west in the evening ahead of Storm Ciara.

Storm Ciara is the  third named storm of the season which started in September.