THE first weather forecast for the festive period has been published today - and it appears to hold out little prospect of a white Christmas in York and North Yorkshire.

The monthly outlook produced by BBC Weather in association with MeteoGroup, which runs up to December 27, stresses it is too early to make a prediction of what the weather will be like over the UK on Christmas Day itself, 'but we can look at what the latest forecast guidance is suggesting for the week as whole.'

It says a consensus of the latest predictions suggest that high pressure will start to build over France, Germany and southern England, while low pressure will start to shift further north, and this would suggest a trend to less cold weather, as winds over the UK come in from the south-west more often.

It says: "North-western (areas) have the greatest chance of wet and windy weather, while the southern and eastern half of the UK will become drier and more settled, but with some mist and fog."

The forecasters suggest there's more chance of snow earlier in December, saying wintry showers are likely at one stage, perhaps even some heavy snow showers over the higher ground in the north.

There will then be spells of rain and brisk winds in mid December, especially over southern parts, and it should be cold enough for some of the rain to fall as sleet and snow.

"Some heavy wet snow falling to low levels cannot be completely excluded - we've seen it before in recent Decembers with a similar weather pattern, such as 2011 and especially 2017," it says.