A Comet country white Christmas? Not likely, say bookies
IF YOU’RE dreaming of a white Christmas this year, then you may be disappointed.
For bookies have dramatically slashed the odds of it NOT snowing on Christmas Day in Comet country to 1/20.
If you a fancy a flutter of just one single flake falling, then you’re looking at odds of 7/1. Three weeks ago, those odds were 3/1.
In fact, betting agent Ladbrokes has said most of its festive bets recently have been for Christmas Day being the warmest on record.
“Weather punters have gone from one extreme to another,” said Alex Donohue, spokesman for Ladbrokes.
“The money now says that we’ll be in for the mildest Christmas ever. We’ve taken thousands of bets on both outcomes, so must be the only people in the country hoping for neither snow or sunshine on the big day!”
According to North Herts met observer Richard Barker, Christmas Day is likely to be warmer.
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Mr Barker said that, although it had been “an unremarkable month”, temperatures were expected to rise in the lead up to the weekend. But in order to be the hottest Christmas Day in North Herts, the thermometer would have to top 13.1 degrees Celsius, recorded by Mr Barker in 1974.
“It looks as though, in the run-up to Christmas, it will be a bit milder,” he added.
“The month, as a whole, is running bang on average. What started off as cold snap has been evened out by it getting warmer.”
Temperatures in North Herts this year are five degrees warmer than this time last year, which was unusually cold.
It has, however, been a wet month for the district. Until December, it had been on course to be the driest year since at least 1971, when Mr Barker’s began keeping record.
“December has proved to be a wet month so far,” he added.
“There have been 37mm of rainfall so far - 1.5 times the average. It looks like that wet end to the year may scupper the record.”
