A white Christmas may be on the cards for some parts of the UK.

The country – especially western parts – will be lashed by strong winds and heavy rains all day on Wednesday and into the early part of Thursday. Forecasters are predicting rain for every region in the UK.

The silver lining in all these clouds will be that it's set to turn milder but that will be a brief respite as an experienced forecaster is already talking about a white Christmas.

Ex-BBC and Met Office forecaster John Hammond told the Daily Mirror: “There is an increasing chance of much colder air being pushed towards us from the north and east as December progresses. The chance of significant snowfall increases. A White Christmas may be more likely this year than most.”

The Bookies seem to think so too as the odds of a white Christmas in Glasgow and Edinburgh have been slashed to just 2/1.

Ladbrokes have responded quickly to temperatures plummeting over the last few days. It now has odds of 4/6 (from evens) that this will be the coldest December since records began.

The current record holder is December 2011 which averaged a mean temperature of -1°C. It’s now 4/9 for snowfall on December 25.

Alex Apati from Ladbrokes said: “Punters have already been paid plenty thanks to Jack Frost this month and the odds are suggesting more records will be broken between now and the New Year.”

Here's what the Met Office has to say about storm Diana – named by Portugal's national weather service - which is due to reach us on Wednesday after a wet and windy day for western areas tomorrow.

The forecasters say: “A very unsettled spell of weather is expected with strong winds combined with widespread and, in places, heavy rain. Winds are expected to increase from the far southwest early on Wednesday, spreading northeast, with areas adjacent to the Irish Sea most exposed to the south to south-easterly wind.

“Wind gusts of 60mph are expected with a few, more exposed, locations seeing 70mph gusts. Winds will also turn north-westerly across Northern Ireland later, transferring the main focus to northern areas here. The strong winds will also bring some rough seas and large waves, with some coastal impacts possible.”

In short, prepare for some disruption.

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