It looks very unlikely that we'll get a white Christmas but Met Eireann are warning that an Arctic Storm could hit our shores on Christmas Day.

After an unseasonably warm and dry December, the forecaster said there is an “elevated risk” of strong winds and rain developing this weekend.

The stormy conditions are set to arrive on the night of Christmas Eve and continue into Christmas Day, with temperatures dropping due to Arctic winds.

The weather may start to change as early as Thursday, with a slight temperature drop, before gale force winds hit coasts on Friday.

“Because it’s wet and windy, there’s always a potential that it will deepen a bit further as a depression, and that there might be a storm,” a Met Éireann spokesperson said.

“The atmosphere is becoming more mobile on the Atlantic in the coming weeks.

“That increasing jet stream will bring occasional wet and windy weather – more so than we have seen in recent times.”

Winds could reach 40kmh on Friday but this also means that it is unlikely to be frosty on Christmas Day.