SNOW could fall in Oxfordshire on Boxing Day or in the early hours of the 27th, the Met Office is forecasting.

The public body issued a level 2 cold weather alert yesterday, warning of wind, rain and low temperatures on Boxing Day.

Forecaster Krista Mitchell said drivers should be wary of icy roads in the morning, as clear skies on Christmas Day would cause temperatures to fall more quickly overnight. At 7am it was 0deg in Oxford and -2deg in Benson.

This morning the forecast for Oxford was for sleet to come in around 11pm, with it possibly turning to snow around 3am on the 27th. It is a similar picture west and north of the city.

As of 4pm the Met Office was warning we could see snow between 1am and 3am. 

The cold snap would continue through to Tuesday at least, but Sunday, Monday and Tuesday was unlikely to see any rain.

Banbury, though, is forecast to see more snow. There may even be heavy snowfalls around 1am and light snow as late as 5am. Sleet and/or snow may return to the town around lunchtime on the 27th.

Yesterday Ms Mitchell forecast: “Clouds will thicken because of the low pressure system, which will start to affect Oxfordshire (on Christmas Day) afternoon.

“That will bring quite a lot of rain and when it meets the cold air there is the potential for snow.

“As (Boxing Day) goes on snow will become more likely, particularly in the evening.”

The Chief Forecaster's assessment was: "A depression developing over the Atlantic Ocean is expected to track east then southeastwards across the southern half of Britain during Boxing Day.

"A spell of snow is likely, even to lower levels, on the northern flank of this depression. South of the depression centre, rain will fall, heavy at times.

"There remains much more uncertainty than average regarding the track of this depression which in turn leads to uncertainty about the location of the heaviest precipitation and how much snow there will be.

"Where snow does occur accumulations of 2 to 4 cm are likely even to lower levels and in excess of 10 cm possible."

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