Christmas Day weather forecast - but will it be a white one?

Many in the UK will wake up to a frosty morning on Christmas Day - but don't hold out hope for snow, forecasters have said.

The Met Office says the 24 and 25 December will be dry and sunny for most, but a brisk wind picking up from Christmas Eve will make this year slightly below-average temperature wise.

It adds that for most of the country, it will feel close to freezing, with temperatures peaking at 4-5C across the festive period.

In Scotland, temperatures are forecast to plummet below freezing across much of the country, with the north of the country potentially reaching -5C.

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Keen swimmers looking for a bracing dip in the sea on Christmas Day and Boxing Day may potentially face big waves, due to easterly winds.

Despite the chillier temperatures, a white Christmas is not looking likely, with only a small chance of snowfall in Dartmoor and a 10% chance of "winter flurries" on the south coast of England.

"All we need, of course, is for a flake of snow to fall anywhere across the UK for it to technically be termed a 'white Christmas', so something to keep an eye on across the far south of England," Met Office meteorologist Marco Petagna previously said.

Last year, not one snowflake was recorded anywhere in the UK on Christmas Day. In fact, temperatures were above zero everywhere.

The last time all four UK nations had a white Christmas was back in 2010, the year snow lay most widely across the UK since 1959.

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On Boxing Day, some southern counties could see more cloud, but elsewhere is expected to remain largely dry with sunny spells.

Similar weather is expected right up until New Year's Eve, Met Office meteorologist Becky Mitchell said.

"It's a bit colder than average, not unusual for the time of year, but in terms of averages it would be a bit below," she added.

"The weather's all very similar really, out towards New Year's Eve. The Christmas period is quite a nice forecast."

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