UK weather: 'Beast from the east' not coming back over Easter bank holiday weekend after all, says Met Office

Forecasters say snow a possibility on higher ground but 'nothing unusual about that in March' and no repeat of Arctic conditions and travel chaos seen at beginning of month

The Met Office has moved to dispel concerns that the UK was set to be struck by a third instalment of the "Beast from the East" over the Easter Weekend.

While the weather will certainly turn colder towards the end of the week and there will be snow on high ground, concerns that Britain would be blanketed with snowfall and mired in travel disruption - as it was at the start of the month - are unfounded, the meteorological institute has said.

"After two bouts of exceptional cold in the last month, well, it’s easy to understand why when we talk about the weather turning chillier again, people assume there’ll be more heavy snowfall," forecaster Alex Deakin said.

"But that is simply not the case with the weather we are expecting this week. Throughout the Easter period, yes, it may well be chillier, but we are not expecting the extreme, we are not expecting 'Beast from the East 3' or 'Beaster'.

"The last two outbreaks of cold weather have brought exceptional, widespread, heavy snowfall across the UK and many severe weather warnings.

"The weather this week won’t be anything like on that scale and nothing like as disruptive.

"There will be some snowfall but it will be almost exclusively over hills throughout northern Britain and there’s nothing unusual about that in March."

The Met Office says that stronger sun will prevent any snow settling this time around and characterised the forthcoming Easter weather as "cool and changeable", with conditions cooler but only "a little below average, not [a repeat of] the sub-zero values earlier in March".

“Temperatures look likely to be still a bit below average and rain will never be too far away,” Mr Deakin added.

"It is important to point out that we are not expecting anything on the scale of the last two spells of unusually cold weather which brought significant and disruptive snowfall," said chief meteorologist Frank Saunders.

"Throughout the Easter weekend it will stay unsettled with showers or longer outbreaks of rain for most.

"There will be some sunshine at times as well though, with the best of any drier and brighter weather expected across the northwest."

Today, rain over the east of the country will ease and make way for brighter skies, although conditions will remain wet and windy in the north.

Tomorrow, there is actually a chance of some snow in the south east thanks to a wet weather system moving in eastwards from the Atlantic, although forecaster Aidan McGivern stressed it was unlikely to settle.