THE Met Office has responded to suggestions that another 'Beast from the East' could be soon coming our way.

Earlier this month, the Met Office had said a major Sudden Stratospheric Warning (SSW) is expected to happen in late February or early March.

In February 2018, a SSW caused the Beast from the East, which brought the UK to a standstill.

Northumberland and the rest of the UK were hit with a blanket of snow and public services across the area were affected.

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However, the Met Office stressed that an SSW does not always equate to a Beast from the East-like weather scenario.

Today, a Met Office spokesman told the Courant: "Within the next seven days – our current forecasting window – there is no prospect for a Beast from the East type weather set up.

"Conditions will turn cooler toward the end of the week and into the early part of next week, but these conditions are fuelled by home-grown cooler conditions and in fact the weather over the next week will be nothing unusual for the time of year: typical winter weather.

"With recent weather features over the Arctic and around the pole there could be a longer-term prospect of colder conditions affecting the UK at the end of February and into March. This is by no means certain however.

"We are signalling the chance for colder conditions to occur after the next week, but at this lead time we cannot have sufficient confidence to state the chances of the event occurring or likely impacts any more definitively."