THE chances of it being a white Christmas this year are ‘pretty slim’ according to a Met Office meteorologist.

However, Steven Keates told the Oxford Mail ‘one cold snap’ could change that.

He said: “The summary for the next three months is milder and a bit colder from time to time.

“In terms of a white Christmas, it being snowy is pretty slim at the moment, but it only takes one cold snap to change that.

“It’s too early to say with any confidence if there’ll be a white Christmas.

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“There’s an infinite amount of variables which can have different impacts on each other.

“It would be another month before we can say with proper confidence whether there’ll be a white Christmas.”

Mr Keates said in addition to milder temperatures over the winter, there will also be more rain than average.

He said: “Broad thinking at the moment is that during the next three months, temperatures will skew towards the milder side of average as a whole.

“In terms of precipitation, there’ll be wetter than average conditions.

“This doesn’t take into account day to day activities though – we look at global weather patterns and how things happening thousands of miles away can impact the UK.”