Dreaming of a 'windy' Christmas

It looks like we are heading for a windy, rather than a white Christmas this year.

Forecasters are predicting spells of wet and windy weather, more often mild, rather than very cold.

A spokeswoman for netweather.tv said: "The forecasts are showing another stormy area of low pressure heading for the UK around Christmas day. There is some cold air, wrapped up in this but a picture perfect glistening snowy scene is quite unlikely a week Wednesday."

According to the Met Office Christmas 2010 was the last white Christmas. It was extremely unusual, as not only was there was snow on the ground at 83% of stations - the highest amount ever recorded - but snow or sleet also fell at 19% of stations.

We also had a white Christmas in 2009, 13% of stations recorded snow or sleet falling, and 57% reported snow on the ground.

For many people, a White Christmas means a complete covering of snow falling between midnight and midday on 25 December.

However, the definition used most widely, notably by those placing and taking bets, is for a single snowflake (perhaps among a mixed shower of rain and snow) to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25 December at a specified location.

For more see: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/snow/white-christmas