A WEATHER event similar to the one which caused the Beast from the East in 2018 is expected over the coming days.

The Met Office said that a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event will take place in the next couple of days, but that it would not affect weather in the UK until the end of February or early in March.

It told the Daily Echo that at this stage it is difficult to know what impacts the SSW would have on the weather in the UK, let alone Dorset.

An SSW caused extreme cold weather and snow events in 2009-10, 2013 and in the Beast from the East in 2018.

There is no guarantee that an SSW would result in cold weather like this, though, as an SSW in 2019 had no major impact on the UK.

A spokesperson for the Met Office said: “An SSW can make the jet stream meander more, which can lead to a large area of high pressure over northern Europe, including the UK.

“This can lead to cold and dry weather, though the precise impacts of this SSW can’t be determined as yet, as it will depend on how that SSW takes place in the coming days.”