No snow on cards as Christmas to be grey and mild

THERE won’t be a white Christmas in Cardiff as forecasters predict a cloudy and grey festive period.

As the country gears up for the festive break the weather is set to remain fairly cloudy and grey, but apart from patches here and there it will hopefully remain dry.

The Met Office has said today will see some rain and mist early on, but this will gradually disperse leading to brighter spells, particularly in the east.

As we head into the weekend and Christmas Day the weather will be mainly mild and cloudy and will become increasingly breezy with rain at times.

Temperatures in Cardiff are expected to be between 6°C and 11°C until Boxing Day, when the sun could make an appearance.

Met Office meteorologist Emma Sharples said: “On Friday it will be cold and fairly mild with drizzly rain in the morning in south-east Wales and the Cardiff area but it will become dryer unless you’re on the hills and the coast.

“Moving into the weekend we start to see a change, with high pressure on the rise from the west, but the only thing that will change is seeing wind developing in the later part of the day into Christmas Eve.

“On Christmas Eve itself there will be patchy rain, but nothing particularly heavy, and the same for Christmas Day, a breezy day with quite a lot of cloud and a little bit of rain overnight.

“On Boxing Day it will also be breezy and windy, not a complete wash-out but not completely dry.”

There will be disruption on the railways, with passengers asked to check timetables as there will be disruption due to improvement and engineering works being carried out.

Many train companies will also be making changes to their timetable to match service levels to the number of customers travelling.

Rail companies say that most of the work has been scheduled for when no trains are planned to run, such as on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Mark Carne, chief executive at Network Rail, said: “While most of the network is open for business, some routes are heavily affected and so we strongly advise passengers to plan ahead this Christmas.

“We know that our railway is up to 50% quieter than usual during the festive period so taking on and delivering these huge transformational schemes at this time of year minimises our impact on passengers who, so research shows, understand the need for such activity.”

With many people finishing work today, the emergency services are gearing up for “Black Friday”. Police forces and ambulance crews anticipate higher volumes of 999 calls as people overdo it at their Christmas parties.

Alcohol-related incidents rise steeply at this time of the year and increase pressure on NHS services in particular.

An Alcohol Treatment Centre will be open in Cardiff, designed to stop drunk people travelling to A&E departments.

The Welsh Ambulance Service is operating a triage vehicle in Cardiff city centre to assess patients, freeing up paramedics and police officers to respond to other emergencies.