UK weather: What Met Office has to say about bookies slashing odds of snow at Christmas

If you're dreaming of a white Christmas, you could be in luck - if the bookies' predictions are anything to go by.

The Daily Star reports bookemaker Coral as slashing the odds of a white Christmas in the UK - but the Met Office told Bristol Live it isn't so sure.

Coral is offering odds there will be a White Christmas in the UK of 4/5 – which means snow would fall on Buckingham Palace, Aldergrove Airport in Belfast, Pittodrie Stadium in Aberdeen, Edinburgh Castle, Manchester’s Coronation Street or on the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

William Hill has also revealed odds on snow falling on December 25 in some locations - including 3/1 at Aberdeen, 4/1 in Newcastle, 5/1 in Leeds, 6/1 in Liverpool, 6/1 in London, 5/1 in Belfast, 10/1 in Cardiff and 12/1 in Penzance.

Coral's Harry Aitkenhead told the Daily Star: "The big winter freeze is about to get underway and there's a definite chance of the next few months breaking the record for the coldest winter since records began.

"Snow is set to sprinkle over the UK in the next week and it's raising excitement about the prospect of a White Christmas this year.

“We currently make it odds on that we do get a dash of the white stuff somewhere in the UK on the big day."

What the Met Office says

A woman walking through heavy snowfall (Getty Images)

The definition the Met Office uses for a white Christmas is for snow observed falling in the 24 hours of December 25 somewhere in the UK.

Traditionally forecasters used to use a single location in the country to define a white Christmas, which was the Met Office building in London. However, with the increase in betting on where will see a white Christmas, the number of locations have increased.

The Met Office also analyses the data from observing stations around the UK to provide a complete picture of where snow has fallen or was lying on Christmas Day. 

However the Met Office won't give a definitive forecast of snow on Christmas Day until at least December 20.

And a spokesman for the forecaster told Bristol Live the next few weeks show an unsettled picture rather than a particularly cold one.

A Met Office spokesman said: “At the moment it looks like, through the rest of November and into mid December, we will see an unsettled picture with temperatures around average.

“There is no signal of any really cold weather.”

Snow has fallen somewhere in the UK on Christmas Day 38 times in the past 54 years

There has only been a widespread covering of snow on the ground (where more than 40 per cent of stations in the UK reported snow on the ground at 9 am) four times in the past 51 years.

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