The Met Office has weather warnings in place today, including one for rain across south Wales and another covering Cumbria and Lancashire, as it forecast bleak conditions

The cold snap has prompted several yellow weather warnings, along with a more severe amber warning in North Yorkshire.

The UK is braced for a 700-mile storm spanning from Southampton to John O'Groats. According to weather maps from forecaster WXCharts, a total of 29 counties will be battered by the turbulent weather at 9pm today.

The last white Christmas in the UK was in 2023, when 11 percent of the Met Office’s weather stations recorded snow falling, but none of it settled. Early forecasts suggest snow is going to be unlikely on December 25.

A SSW was the same weather phenomenon that led to the brutal ‘Beast from the East’ in 2018, which transported cold air from Siberia to Europe and heavy snowfall to Great Britain and Ireland. Temperatures plummeted across the country with lows of -14.7C recorded in Faversham, Kent, and Storm Emma brought 50 cm of snow in some elevated areas.

Weather maps have suggested that seven snow bombs are set to hit the UK simultaneously. Wintry weather is in store for multiple areas north of Manchester, WXCharts predicts, as December gets under way.