Looking back at the Valentine's Day storms of 2014

If we thought the snow that hit the county at the end of January was bad, it’s certainly worth casting our memories back to 2014.

Dubbed the Valentine’s Day storm, lives were in danger as winds of up to 80mph and waves more than 30ft high pounded coastal areas.

Roofs were torn from homes, there were landslides and power cuts, lorries toppled over with the force of the wind and hundreds of people were evacuated.

A major incident was declared with police, the military, Dorset Councils, the Environment Agency and volunteers all helping keep people safe and clean up the damage.

Here are some pictures – and some incredible stories – from our archives, looking back at the storms that we will remember for a long time to come.

• Flood sirens went off two nights running, on Friday, 14 and Saturday, 15 as winds created gigantic waves which breached the sea defences and threw huge rocks from Chesil Beach into the streets behind the seafront. Here's some pictures of the aftermath on Chiswell:

• Residents told of the 'frightening' experience of hearing the flood sirens go off - but there was in incredible community spirit, with shelter and hot drinks provided for those in need.

• The force of the storms bent these railings on steps leading up from Chesil Beach out of shape, as seen in this picture by Robert Wilson

• And blue clay was exposed on Chesil Beach due to the ferocity of the waves, as shown in this picture by Sue Hogben

• Darren Trent took this picture of people who narrowly avoided being swept out to sea on Portland on Saturday, February 8, 2014

• And he got this incredible shot showing the strength of the waves at Chesil Beach in the early hours of Saturday, February 15, 2014

• In between storms, agencies worked desperately to shore up defences for the next battering. Here they are working at Chesil Beach and Preston Beach in Weymouth:

• In other parts of the county the A35 was blocked for more than two hours when a tree fell across the road at Winterbourne Abbas.

• And a cliff fall at West Bay happened after the coast took a battering.

• Villages were cut off by flooding:

Need a boat to get into the village! @AlexisGreenTV @BBCSouthWeather @BBCSouthNews @Dorsetecho @BBCNews pic.twitter.com/n2YlmBpbIO

— H (@Harry_Lhamilton) February 16, 2014

• But there were some truly incredible stories of communities coming together to beat the odds. Kayleigh Quartermaine and David Wallis of Portland were due to get married in Weymouth - but the beach road was closed, threatening to leave them and their guests unable to get the Weymouth Registry Office. But Kayleigh's friend Tina rushed to Chiswell to alert the authorities and the couple were transported across the flooded beach road in an Army lorry. Read the full story here.

And the aptly-named Storm Wallace of Portland hit national headlines as she rallied volunteers to clean up Chesil Beach after the storms left it strewn with litter and debris.

The storms were so severe that even David Cameron, then Prime Minister, visited to see how the clean-up operation was going - and praised Portland's fight against the weather.