IT’S hard to believe that this time last year Bristol was shivering in the grip of a snowy winter.

Our pictures show the same scenes today and 12 months ago and the difference is striking.

In fact Bristol families could be enjoying one of the warmest Christmas Days on record.

Met Office predictions for the region show the thermometer is set to climb as high as 12C by tomorrow. tomorrow

It is a stark contrast to the big freeze the city experienced last year.

Dan Williams, spokesman for the national weather service, said: “It’s going to be fairly warm by the middle of the week.

“Then we have a cold front coming on Friday and a warm front follows that.

“It’s a bit early to say how warm it will be on Sunday but Bristol will be experiencing temperatures around 8 or 9C up to Christmas Eve.”

If temperatures continue to rise it will be one of the warmest Christmases of recent years and threaten the all-time high of 1920, when 15.6C was recorded in Killerton, Devon.

Last Christmas snow covered 83 per cent of UK weather stations and, along with snowfall last week, has encouraged a tenfold increase in white Christmas bets for Sunday