Overview
- The Met Office outlook for December 21 to January 4 points to low pressure bringing showers or longer spells of rain, periods of strong winds, and some hill snow in northern areas, with temperatures near or slightly above average.
- BBC forecasters expect mostly mild, changeable conditions with only brief colder intervals and say any snow should be confined mainly to northern uplands, though a negative NAO phase could raise the chance of colder weather.
- Netweather leans toward high pressure dominating late December, making a white Christmas relatively unlikely, while allowing for a short-lived northerly or north‑easterly blast that could deliver wintry showers.
- Under the Met Office definition, a white Christmas requires just one observed snowflake anywhere in the UK on December 25, and 2023 qualified on that basis despite limited lying snow.
- Truly widespread Christmas Day snow has been rare in recent decades, with notable years including 1981, 1995, 2009, and 2010, and the Met Office notes snow is climatologically more likely in January and February as warming reduces December odds.