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Ladbrokes’ latest betting odds for snow to fall anywhere in the UK on Christmas Day are 1/2, with Edinburgh and Newcastle the “most likely destinations to see snow”.
But the Met Office has urged people to take a prediction this far in advance with a “pinch of salt”.
Met Office spokeswoman Nicola Maxey said Christmas is “still a month away”, so it is impossible with this lead time to have any confidence in a detailed forecast.
She said: “There is often a fine line between who sees snow and who sees rain. Sometimes just a fraction of a degree celsius change in temperature can make the difference between rain or snow falling, making forecasting snow weeks in advance extremely difficult.
“The definition of a white Christmas most widely used is for a single snowflake to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25 December.
“Therefore, snow falls ‘somewhere’ in the UK for more Christmas days than not. But widespread snow falling and lying on the ground is rather more infrequent.
“For widespread and substantial snow on the ground on Christmas Day we have to go back to 2010.”
She went on to say Christmas came at the beginning of the season for snow, adding “wintry weather is more likely in the deepening cold of early January”.
“White Christmases were more frequent in the 18th and 19th centuries, even more so before the change of calendar in 1752, which effectively pushed Christmas day back by 12 days,” she added.
“On average you would expect to see 3.9 days where snow was recorded falling in December in the UK but 5.6 days in February.”
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