TEMPERATURES could drop to unseasonable lows in late March and early April as a one in 250-year weather event hits Scotland.

Sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs), which tend to drop temperatures significantly and brought the Beast from the East, usually hit the UK every other winter.

However, this year has seen three, with the most recent one starting in the past few days over the north Atlantic.

Professor Adam Scaife, head of long-range forecasting at the Met Office, said: “Although we have not seen it before, we recently documented the chances of an unprecedented three SSW events happening in one winter.

"Our research work, using multiple computer simulations, showed that this could occur about once in every 250 winters.”

The effects of the phenomenon take one to two weeks to impact the weather. 

Forecasts across Scotland for this coming week show relatively clear skies and mild temperatures.

However, some long-range forecasts suggest that temperatures could fall across Scotland through the end of March and the start of April.

Accuweather predicts that the west of Scotland could see snowfall and low temperatures around 0 degrees during that timespan.

Meanwhile, the Met Office says temperatures across the UK will be near or slightly above average, but that "cooler interludes" could hit the north.

Long range weather forecasting is challenging due to the difficulty of understanding how the atmosphere will evolve in the near future.

SSWs are disruptions in airflow 10-50 kilometres above the earth, which can cause shifts in air pressure.

According to the Met Office, these effectively block the UK off from the low-pressure systems over the Atlantic that cause the mild, wet conditions typical of Scottish weather.

Professor Scaife added: “Although this is very rare, we also found that the chance of multiple SSW events is increased during El Niño and so the chance of multiple events this winter is raised.”