UK weather live: White Christmas ‘highly likely’ as Met Office issues warning

The Met Office has provided this visualisation of what is causing the windy weather en route to the UK later this week:

Looking towards the New Year, the weather looks to remain unsettled with low pressure bringing breezy and wet conditions for many, the Met Office has said.

Here is the Met Office forecast for this morning, with forecasters predicting a damp start for many:

“As we begin Christmas Day wintry showers initially feeding in across the north in the colder air mass would technically make it a white Christmas, as we only need to see a single flake falling,” said Met Office deputy chief meteorologist Helen Caughey.

“Elsewhere, while it is likely at first to be mostly dry there is the potential for rain approaching from the west later on.

“As this moves east, we may see rain turning to snow, at least over high ground. It’s unlikely that we will see widespread or settling snow giving any proper accumulations. Although technically it might be a white Christmas, don’t get your hopes up for a picture-perfect white landscape.”

Strong winds are likely to affect a wide area through Thursday, potentially causing some travel disruption. The Met Office warns:

• There is a small chance of longer journey times or cancellations as road, rail, air and ferry services are affected
• There is a slight chance of some damage to buildings, such as tiles blown from roofs
• There is a slight chance that power cuts may occur, with the potential to affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage
• There is a small chance that injuries and danger to life could occur from large waves and beach material being thrown onto sea fronts, coastal roads and properties
• There is a small chance of injuries and danger to life from flying debris
• There is a small chance that some roads and bridges could close

The Met Office has issued a danger to life warning for large swathes of the UK amid strong winds and wintry showers on Thursday.

The yellow advistory stretches from Norfolk to the northern-most points of Scotland as gusts are expected to reach 80mph.

Betting company William Hill lowered its odds of a White Christmas, with Glasgow now priced at just 6/5 to see snow on 25 December.

In England, Newcastle (2/1) is most likely coated with snow on Christmas morning, followed by Leeds (5/2) and Manchester (3/1), while seeing Christmas Day snow in London is a 7/1 chance.

Forecasters say it is highly likely the UK will see a white Christmas this year – in certain areas, at least.

“We can say with a high degree of confidence it will be a white Christmas this year,” Met Office spokesperson Grahame Madge told The Independent.

“However that does not mean we will see blankets of snow. It is more likely we will see snow in higher parts of the UK like the North Pennines or Scottish Highlands.”

My colleague Alexander Butler has the details in this report:

Across the Atlantic, a record-setting storm is battering the US East Coast, with millions of people living under flash flood warnings.

Around one foot of rain is expected to inundate New York on Monday as more than a dozen states, including New Jersey and Connecticut, are under flood warnings with heavy rain and strong winds moving in. Meanwhile, cities in South Carolina and Georgia broke rainfall records on Sunday.

An estimated 700,000 customers are without power from Pennsylvania to Maine, tracker PowerOutage.us reports.

My colleagues Martha McHardy and Katie Hawkinson have the latest here:

Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill has outlined the weather we can expect for the week ahead in this lengthy forecast: