No Easter return for the ‘beast from the east’

WEATHER: Fife and Tayside to be hit with some colder temperatures – but nothing extreme

Tayside and Fife will not be in for a third blast of freezing winter weather from eastern Europe, according to forecasters.

The Met Office has shot down rumours of a third “beast from the east” ahead of a short period of colder conditions, hill snow and rain due to hit Scotland this weekend.

Though colder weather will move into Tayside and Fife from Friday into Saturday, temperatures are not expected to drop below 3C or 4C locally.

Snow is only predicted to land in the most rural areas on ground above 1,640ft – and even then it may not last long due to the longer spring days.

And Met Office spokeswoman Nicola Maxey said the cold snap isn’t moving into the UK from eastern Europe and Russia like the first “beast from the east”, which brought several feet of snow and widespread chaos to Courier Country from late February into early March.

It was followed by another weather front labelled the “mini beast from the east” in mid-March, with snow returning to parts of Tayside and Fife.

Mrs Maxey said the cold weather moving into Scotland from Friday has its origins in the south of the UK and not the Arctic Circle, however it will move in from a “more easterly direction”.

And the sunny weather which has graced Courier Country in recent days looks likely to disappear in the coming days.

“There is going to be some colder temperatures. We are not looking at anything in the same realm as the two cold snaps at the end of February or mid-March,” Mrs Maxey said.

“What we have got is a low pressure system by the weekend which will be over the south of the UK. It will bring up some air from the south. It is not air coming from Russia or Siberia.”

It is not air coming from Russia or Siberia

Picture: Steve MacDougall. Scenes like this in Perth this month will not be repeated, says the Met Office.