Reuters
Mon Dec 5, 2005 6:00 PM GMT
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will have a mild Christmas without snow this year, the Met Office predicted on Monday, while sticking by earlier forecasts of a colder-than-normal winter.
"It does seem that a mild spell starting in the run up to Christmas will take us through the Christmas period," Met Office Spokesman Barry Gromett told Reuters.
"We are not expecting on the basis of that forecast any snow on the Christmas period, certainly not in lower lying places anyway. It is a long way from Christmas, but as it stands at the moment, I would not put any money on snow at all," he said.
After hearing this, those hoping for a white Christmas could be in for a disappointment -- and lose a bit of money.
Bookmakers William Hill have shortened the odds for a white Christmas in London from 6-1 to 9-2 as more bets were placed on snow throughout the year, partly driven by Met Office long-range forecasts for the coldest winter in 10 years.
The odds for snow in Aberdeen, Scotland on Christmas has been shortened from 6-1 to 7-2, William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said.
"We will keep taking bets until Christmas day," Adams said.
The Meteorological Office said its long-range forecasts, which repeatedly said Europe has a high probability of a colder than average winter, still has time to prove correct.
"In this country, the coldest weather in winter is usually post Christmas," Met spokesman Gromett said.
In the short term, Gromett said temperatures are forecast to start rising higher than average on the weekend of December 17-18, just after a week of colder-than-usual weather that brings night frost and fog in Britain, raising demand for power.
"Come the weekend of December 17-18 the weather might begin to break down to a more westerly pattern of weather, becoming milder," he said.
"At the moment that mild weather looks like extending through the Christmas period. It seems to tie in with the European pattern as well."
The Met office is the government's weather division. For this week, it expects a settling down of the weather with no more rain or snow, especially in Britain, central France and southern Germany.
