MET Office experts have undated their prediction on a major weather event taking place later this month.

Weather forecasters have sounded an early warning of a Polar vortex heading towards the UK at the end of February.

The polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the Earth's poles. It weakens in summer and strengthens in winter.

Ironically, when the polar vortex is colder it usually means the UK is in for wet and windy conditions and the south experiences milder weather.

However, an event known as as a sudden stratospheric warming event can disrupt the polar vortex and displace frigid air masses into Europe leading to perfect conditions for snow and freezing tempratures.

These were the conditions that led to the notorious Beast from the East a couple of years ago when the country was pummeled by snow storms.

Worse still, if a sudden stratospheric warming event DOES happen the conditions can persist for weeks.

The UK has already experienced one minor sudden stratospheric warming event in January when the country suffered a cold snap - and now Met Office officials say another is due within weeks.

Professor Adam Scaife, head of long-range forecasting at the Met Office, predicts the chance of this happening as 'over 80%'.

However, he says it is still too early to draw a definite conclusion on what this will mean for our weather.

The UK is likely to experience the impact in late February and into March.

The latest long range forecast says: "Temperatures expected to be mostly around average, but a period of colder or much colder temperatures remains a small possibility and could bring spells of wintry weather."

Experts say that a sudden stratospheric warming "does not always equate to a 'Beast from the East' type scenario". While this is what happened in 2018, the Met Office pointed out that there was also a similar event in 2019 that had little impact on the weather.

So don't batten down the hatches just yet.