White Christmas? What is the Met Office saying about the chances for white Christmas in the Highlands, Scotland and the UK as a whole?
Will we see a white Christmas this festive season?
It's the question everyone always asks as the big day approaches - either from a wish for magical Christmas-type landscapes, or for more practical reasons surrounding travel and getting to and from loved ones and friends.
Well, after weeks of speculation - and the usual outlandish and heavily debunked claims of certain national tabloid newspapers - the Met Office has finally given us the first hints as to what we might expect.
And... they're not looking great.
In its latest Deep Dive forecast - which is published weekly on its YouTube channel and gives a very in-depth look at the weather forces at play in coming weeks - it has warned that the chances of a white Christmas is "unlikely but stay tuned".
"Have you been dreaming of a white Christmas... if that's what you're after I might have a little bit of disappointing news," said Met Office forecaster Honor Criswick.
She revealed that forecast trends for the week covering Monday, December 23 to Monday. December 30 suggest a stronger likelihood for high pressure centred slightly to the south-west of the British Isles.
This would mean milder westerly or north-westerly winds were more likely, then colder directions from the north or east.
The location would also increase the chance of frontal systems sweeping into the north-west around the top of the high, meaning that while other parts of the UK may be dry and settled and calm, if possibly cloudy, the north-west may be more prone to a little rain and windier conditions.
"That does mean once again that the north-west of the country may just get the short straw in terms of any rainfall as there's s chance we may get some frontal systems just start to clip the edge of the north-west of the country if those move through," continued Ms Criswick.
"So although high pressure does often mean settled weather it doesn't always mean glorious sunshine. We can get lots of cloud and moisture trapped underneath that high, so although largely dry and settled for many away from the north-west it could still mean quite a cloudy picture."
However, although the projected location of the high's centre to the south-west of the UK on Christmas Day is the most likely scenario, it had a probability of 53 per cent - and forecasts may yet change further as the big day approaches.
"So largely settled just a chance we could see some wet and windy weather in the far north-west," she added.
"Now, what about any snow? Well, generally this kind of wind direction is a slightly milder direction, so if we do start to see our winds move from the west and south-west they are coming off from the Atlantic, and that's a milder direction. compared to say if the high was situated further west and then we'd start to see those northerly winds."
So, we're more likely at this stage to not see snow than to have some fall at Christmas.
But this will depend on the specific location of the high pressure.
As Ms Criswick later said: "[A white Christmas is] unlikely, but stay tuned".
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