Are you dreaming of a white Christmas?

Sadly, the current forecast suggests that it might stay as just a dream this festive period, as no snow is forecast for the seventh year in a row.

The last official white Christmas, according to the Met Office, came in 2010, when there was widespread snow across the UK, but the outlook for this year looks a lot less snowy.

Looking ahead to Christmas, the Met Office said: “The early part of this period, which includes Christmas, is looking fairly changeable with showers or longer spells of rain, possibly wintry over higher ground.

“The best of any settled and drier conditions will probably be across northern parts of the country during this period, where overnight frosts are likely.”

The most accurate picture of whether snow will come on Christmas will be available from five days before the big day.

The Met Office said statistically there has been snow somewhere in the UK 38 times in the past 54 years, but there has only been a widespread covering of snow on the ground four times in the past 51 years.

The reason, says the Met Office, why white Christmases are so rare is because it comes at the beginning of when it’s likely to snow in the UK, and it is more likely to snow between January and March than in December.

It said white Christmases were more frequent in the 18th and 19th Centuries, but climate change over time has brought higher average temperatures over land and sea, which has generally reduced the chances of a white Christmas.

The snowiest Christmases in the past 60 years came in 1970, 2004, and 1995, with the deepest snowfall recorded coming in 1981 in Perthshire, Scotland, when the snow was 47cm deep.