Met Office raises hopes of a White Christmas this year

White Christmas is on the cards! Cold snap could see widespread festive snow in UK for the first time since 2010

• Britain told to brace for first potential White Christmas in a decade next week
• Met Office says unsettled weather is expected and ‘snow is possible in places’  

Britain may experience its first widespread White Christmas for over a decade with a prediction of possible snow late next week.

The last time there was snow across much of the country on December 25 was in 2010, when 83 per cent of weather stations reported lying snow and others experienced snow falling.

There have been White Christmases on four of the past six years, but they involved only a small number of locations. 

Now the Meteorological Office says unsettled weather is expected towards the end of next week, with ‘snow possible for some places’.

Met Office spokesman Oli Claydon said wintry weather is likely if Britain is hit by an area of low pressure from the south, which would lead to a bitter, easterly airflow. He added: ‘Eastern areas could get the chance of snow.’

The last time there was snow across much of the country on December 25 was in 2010, when 83 per cent of weather stations reported lying snow and others experienced snow falling

Since 1960, there have been only four occasions when at least 40 per cent of UK weather stations have reported snow on the ground at 9am on December 25 – 1981, 1995, 2009 and 2010

Similar situations have, in previous winters, seen snow affecting eastern counties as far south as East Anglia, London and Kent.

But Mr Claydon added: ‘It’s too early to say whether this will happen. An alternative scenario would see low pressure moving in from the Atlantic, which would bring warm, wet air. It’s a waiting game.’

Since 1960, there have been only four occasions when at least 40 per cent of UK weather stations have reported snow on the ground at 9am on December 25 – 1981, 1995, 2009 and 2010. 

But on around half of all Christmases in the past 60 years, at least 5 per cent of areas have recorded some snow falling.

Meanwhile, temperatures will be in single figures Celsius this weekend, with frost likely in western areas tomorrow night.

The warmest places in the next few days are expected to be the Scottish mountain tops, which will poke above the cold air into milder conditions – known as ‘temperature inversion’.

Mr Claydon said temperatures on the upper slopes of some of the mountains could reach the mid-teens – warmer than Barcelona.

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