Snowball fights and sledging could be under threat because settling snow may disappear for much of the UK by the end of the century due to climate change.
Met Office analysis has suggested traditional winter activities such as building snowmen could be lost if global greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced.
The research, which will feature on BBC Panorama on Monday, suggested that most of the south of England may not see days with freezing or below zero temperatures by the 2040s, because of global warming.
Only very high ground and parts of northern Scotland will experience freezing temperatures by 2080, it is claimed.
The Met Office stressed there is year-on-year variability with temperature and some years will be colder or warmer than the trend, but the risk is based on possibilities that global emissions continue to increase.
If global emissions are cut, the UK can avoid greater temperature rises, but average levels are still likely to increase with hotter summers more likely.
Senior Met Office scientist Dr Lizzie Kendon told BBC Panorama: “We’re saying by the end of the century much of the lying snow will have disappeared entirely except over the highest ground.
“The over-arching picture is warmer, wetter winters; hotter, drier summers. But within that, we get this shift towards more extreme events, so more frequent and intense extremes, so heavier rainfall when it occurs.
“It’s a big change… in the course of our lifetime. It’s just a wake-up call really as to what we’re talking about here.”
Dr Kendon said temperatures exceeding 30C (86F) for two days in a row will be 16 times more frequent by the end of the century, compared to the average between 1981 and 2000.
The forecaster's analysis also suggests winter rain could increase by up to a third on average without steps to reduce global emissions, but this is less certain and rainfall could decrease instead.
– BBC Panorama: Britain’s Wild Weather will air at 7pm on Monday on BBC One.
