Hopes of a widespread white Christmas are melting away, as a front of mild air looks set to win out against colder temperatures.

There is uncertainty about how much cold air will move over the UK and interact with weather fronts pushing in from the southwest.

There has been great excitement about the possibility of snow.

UK weather: The latest Sky News forecast

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Well, if you like snow, unfortunately it looks like the mild air will win this battle, with snow on Christmas Day confined to the Pennines and perhaps the Southern Uplands in Scotland.

A few wintry showers are also possible across the Northern Isles, but the bulk of Scotland will be dry, with some sunshine.

The rest of the UK will be rather grey, with outbreaks of rain which will turn heavy and more persistent later, perhaps giving snow on northern hills as mentioned above.

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Wind will make it feel colder

It will be chilly in the North East and mild in the South West, but the wind will make it feel colder. The strongest winds will be across northern and central parts.

The definition the Met Office uses to define a white Christmas is for one snowflake to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25 December, somewhere in the UK.

Since 1959, snow fell most widely on Christmas Day in 2004 and lay most widely on Christmas Day in 2010.

The last white Christmas was last year, with 6% of weather stations recording snow falling and 4% of stations reporting lying snow on the ground.

Looking further ahead to Boxing Day, there is still some uncertainty (more than we’d expect with three days to go). It looks like northern Scotland will be cold and fine again, while South Wales and southern England will be mild with a risk of showers.

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In between, there’ll be some patchy rain and perhaps hill snow too. It will stay windy in the North, but the wind will pick up in the South West later as more rain moves in.

Before then, there is a yellow warning of snow for the Scottish Highlands – valid until 11am on Friday.

Rain is expected at low levels but above 300-400m snow is more likely, with an excess of 10cm possible above 500m.

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