Holiday outlook: Will it be a white Christmas?

More settled weather conditions are expected as we head towards Christmas Day, as a ridge of high pressure develops across the UK.

Most parts of our region will be cold, dry and sunny by then, but there is a chance of a few showers at first, which will become confined to the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coast.

The technical definition of a white Christmas – that a flake of snow has to be observed in the 24 hour period in any given location – may be met for example on the top of the North York Moors, but for the vast majority of us, it will be another green one.

Following a mostly dry and cold Boxing Day, computer models develop a deep area of low pressure – which could bring gales, heavy rain and possibly, in some areas, the risk of snow, depending on its intensity and track on Friday night and into Saturday.

If so, it would be an eventful end to a very eventful year – which is looking increasingly likely to be the warmest year on record in the UK and across the globe.

It’s worth ending on how December has once again proved the tabloid headline writers wrong.

Fuelled by a small number of independent weather forecasts, they confidently predicted December as a whole would be a much colder month than normal, with disruptive snow in many areas.

Weather Action for one said December would be ‘unusually snowy with some bitterly cold blasts’.

But according to CET data, the mean temperature so far has again been well above average with much of the country yet to see their first snowflake.

One prediction for 2015 that can be guaranteed is to expect further hysterical but invariably unfounded extreme weather headlines in the tabloids.

Happy Christmas!

END