The bookies are giving numerous UK cities more chance of a White Christmas than any of the last five years.
Much of the UK is currently under a cold snap that has seen a significant amount of snow in the North East of England and Scotland, with flakes even falling over London on Thursday morning.
The drop in temperatures and the first flurry of snow has been brought by an area of low pressure from the Arctic to the east and a ridge of high pressure to the west.
That's caused bookmakers to drop the odds for a White Christmas across many UK cities, with London into 5/2 from 6/1 while Aberdeen has the most chance of any city at 5/4.
That's the lowest odds offered in any of the last five years, with our table below showing the state of play at the start of December year by year.
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |
| London | 9/2 | 5/1 | 11/2 | 4/1 | 5/1 | 5/2 |
| Aberdeen | 5/2 | 3/1 | 7/2 | 2/1 | 3/1 | 5/4 |
| Dublin | 4/1 | 5/1 | 4/1 | 7/2 | 7/1 | 5/1 |
| Belfast | 5/2 | 11/2 | 7/2 | 5/2 | 5/1 | 5/1 |
| Cardiff | 4/1 | 5/1 | 6/1 | 4/1 | 7/1 | 6/1 |
| Manchester | 7/2 | 4/1 | 4/1 | 3/1 | 11/2 | 9/4 |
The chances of a cold winter in general, that could lead to snow on Christmas day have been increased by La Niña (the opposite of El Nino) conditions being forecast (~65-75%) during the Northern Hemisphere winter 2017-18. Should that outcome come to pass, the chance of a colder than average winter would be increased which, in turn, increases the probability of a cold snap bringing snow during the festive season.
