No white Christmas, say forecasters, as Met Office releases weather prediction for 25 December

The Met Office has released its forecast for Christmas Day, and it says there will be no white Christmas this year.

The nation's weather service says that pressure will build as the festive day approaches and on 25 December there are likely to be settled conditions, mild in many places.

The Met Office's Dan Harris said: "Christmas Day itself is likely to be settled, often cloudy, and dry with light winds for the majority.

"Once again, the far north may be windier, with a small chance of further rain across northwest Scotland.

"Temperatures are expected to be widely mild, so if you are hoping for a blanket of snow across the country on Christmas Day, I'm sorry to say you will be disappointed."

But they said it is still too early to be certain, and that they will provide updates in the coming days.

Get the forecast for your area

For the Met Office to declare a white Christmas, a single snowflake must be observed falling in the 24 hours of Christmas Day by either an official Met Office observer or a Met Office automated weather station.

While 2023 was technically a white Christmas, with 11% of weather stations recording snowfall, the last widespread one with snow settling on the ground was more than ten years ago.

The UK has only seen widespread snow coverage on Christmas four times since 1960 - in 1981, 1995, 2009 and 2010.

Yellow wind warning before Christmas

Before then, however, some parts of the UK are set to be hit by high winds with the Met Office issuing yellow weather warnings.

It says that in parts of Scotland, very strong westerly winds are expected on Saturday in association with a deep area of low pressure.

Gusts are expected to reach 65-75mph in the Western Isles and Orkney and there is a small chance some will reach 80mph.

One warning also covers the west coast of Scotland and the north coast of Northern Ireland. In these areas, gusts between 50-60mph could develop widely.

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The Met Office said the conditions have "the potential to cause delays to public transport and some disruption to the road network, which may have a greater than usual impact given the busier pre-Christmas weekend travel".

(c) Sky News 2024: No white Christmas, say forecasters, as Met Office releases weather prediction for 25 December