SCOTLAND could be set for a white Christmas with weather warnings of snow and ice being issued for Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
For northern and western parts of the country, snow is forecast on Sunday evening and throughout Monday, though it may be confined to hills in some areas.
A yellow warning comes in at 9pm on Christmas Day and runs through to 6pm on Boxing Day.
Blustery snow showers are set to hit areas in Central, Tayside & Fife, Grampian, Highlands and Strathclyde.
The Met Office says that a single snowflake falling during the 24 hours of December 25 somewhere in the UK counts as a white Christmas.
Earlier this month temperatures dropped below -10 in many areas.
Heavy downpours are forecast across other parts of the UK into the weekend.
The Met Office said rainfall could reach as high as 30mm, with 10mm to 15mm falling widely throughout Friday.
The wet conditions are set to continue into the weekend and cause challenging driving conditions.
Met Office spokesman Oli Claydon said: “It will be heavy rain and difficult driving conditions with the potential for some surface water build-up as it drains away because there’s a fair amount of rain moving north-eastwards through the day today.
“The next warning comes in at 9pm on Christmas Day evening and that’s for snow and ice in Scotland.
“As we go through the weekend there are continued showers that come in through that front on Saturday.
“Temperatures in the UK are largely governed by the air mass.
“Through the cold spell we had Arctic maritime air mass that switched back to a southwesterly, milder Atlantic air mass, and then there’s just a brief spell (on Boxing Day) when we’re going back to a colder air mass in the west, but not as cold as the cold spell.”
