White Christmas unlikely but festive storms still a possibility

There is less than a 50 per cent chance of a white Christmas in Orkney, the Met Office have confirmed this morning, Tuesday.

Meanwhile, contrary to reports in the national press, the weather forecasting agency has also played down the possibility of a named storm over the festive period.

“There isn’t a named storm,” a spokesman confirmed.

“Dylan would be the next in the sequence, were there to be a low pressure system that meets the threshold, and that is a possibility as we are entering an unsettled period, but — just to stress — there is no storm Dylan at the moment.”

What we are likely to see, however, is an unsettled period between Christmas and New Year beginning next weekend. According to the Met Office, the weather over this week will see increasingly mild temperatures in comparison to earlier this month, with the prospect of showers also likely up until Sunday. After that, weather forecasters say this may change rapidly, but that it is too soon make a confident assessment.