Bookmakers odds on December 25 snow are now as short as 5/2, one of ther shortest prices ever offered

Chilly winds are set to sweep across the north and east of the UK on Thursday bringing with it at least eight inches of snow, while six inches are set to cover the south by the weekend. Bookmakers have now slashed the odds of Christmas Day being coated in snow.

Jonathan Powell from the Positive Weather Solutions, the company which correctly predicted last year’s big freeze, said that snow on Christmas Day was almost a certainty this year. ‘It’s a foregone conclusion as far as we are concerned. If I was a betting man I would put money on it – it is well worth a flutter,’ said Powell.

‘The data has almost consistently been saying that. Scotland and the north east, east and south east of England are all going to get snow.’

Extreme warnings are being made already with claims that the eight inches of expected snow could be combined with 50mph blasts leading to snow drifts blocking roads and railways, therefore cutting off villages and schools.

Temperatures are expected to fall as low as -10C (14F). Last year was the last official white Christmas when a thinner layer of snow covered Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Midlands, north east and south west of England.

By James Massoud