White Christmas dreams dashed (From Herald Series)

White Christmas dreams dashed

9:38am Friday 25th December 2009

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Holidaymakers dreaming of a white Christmas are likely to be disappointed, although parts of Scotland woke up to snow.

But at least the AA and the bookmakers will be pleased if most of the country stays clear of snow.

The severe weather of the past week has caused chaos on the roads, as well as disrupting flights and rail travel.

Many people have stayed at home rather than making the usual Christmas journeys.

Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA, said it would therefore be interesting to see whether people opted to travel on Christmas Day itself.

He said: "The big question has to be whether the journeys that haven't happened are shopping and local ones or the big, long distance Christmas getaways. They could all be going today, because it looks as though they haven't been yet."

Mr Howard predicted a number of problem areas, including parts of the M25, the M6 from Manchester to Birmingham, the M1 junctions 10-14, and the M60 around Manchester.

In Scotland, most of the snow fell in the north east of the country and in the central belt.

Temperatures once again fell to minus 15C in the Highlands. And the mercury dropped to minus 5C in Glasgow but stayed at zero in Edinburgh.

Paul Mott, of the Press Association's weather division, MeteoGroup, said: "Christmas Day will be another cold day around the UK but there is unlikely to be much in the way of snow."

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