UK shall be HOTTER than a Greek island on Christmas Day: Weather map reveals the place Britons will get to indulge in double-digit temperatures for his or her festivities

Brits face the prospect of spending Christmas Day in unseasonably mild weather as temperatures are expected to be higher here than in Corfu.

The mercury could reach as high as 13C in parts of the UK on Wednesday, making it hotter than the Greek island, as well as Rome and Istanbul, which are all expected to reach 12C on that day.

Residents in the northern parts of Scotland will also be stunned to hear that temperatures are predicted to hit double figures over the festive period.

A Met Office forecaster said: ‘Christmas Day and Boxing Day look exceptionally mild for the time of year. Scotland could see overnight temperatures 10C above average on Christmas morning.

‘The usual average for this time of year is 7C or 8C so we’ll be around double where we usually are.’

Last year saw one of the hottest Christmas Eves on record with a high of 15.3C recorded at Heathrow.

And Christmas Day and Boxing Day were also ‘exceptionally mild’ for the time of year with temperatures 10C above average in some areas.

It comes after high speed winds battered the UK this weekend, as the strong gales caused a plane to crash land at Belfast City Airport and at least 100 flights were cancelled at Heathrow Airport.

The Met Office issued yellow warnings for wind over the past weekend, which came into force at 7am on Saturday and remained in place until 9pm on Sunday.

Warnings remain in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and in England warnings cover the North East, North West, South West and West Midlands, as well as Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Hampshire.

But whilst there will still be outbreaks of rain and extensive low cloud spreading into western areas on Monday, things will start to turn milder and brighter by the afternoon.

And then on Christmas Eve, a period of settled, mild and cloudy weather will settle in for the Christmas period.

The best chance of brighter spells will be to the east of England, whilst remaining wet and windy across northwest Scotland.

Meteorologist Marco Petangna said: ‘On Christmas Eve, there will be plenty of cloud around, low enough to give some mist and fog in places.

‘There will be outbreaks of rain in places too, but mainly towards the north west and elsewhere will be mostly dry and much milder than in recent days.

‘The cloudier weather continues as we head through the Christmas period. We will hold on to a lot of cloud though and temperatures well above what they should be for this time of year.’

Belfast City Airport was forced to close on Sunday evening after an Aer Lingus aircraft was forced to make a ‘hard’ landing during the stormy weather.

It is understood the plane’s nose gear collapsed as it landed, with pictures showing the aircraft on the side of a runway with three fire engines nearby.

Police, fire service and ambulance crews were immediately deployed to the scene after the airport declared a ‘full emergency’.

As a result, all flights in and out of the airport were cancelled last night as the runway was not expected to reopen until Monday.

An Emerald Airlines spokesperson said: ‘An Emerald Airlines positioning flight, EA701P, with no passengers on board, flying from Edinburgh to Belfast City Airport experienced a hard landing upon arriving into Belfast City Airport due to adverse weather conditions.’

Elsewhere, a 100 flights were cancelled at Heathrow Airport on Sunday after the Met Office covered the UK in a yellow alert signifying ‘a prolonged period of strong winds’.

P&O Ferries also said journeys between Larne in Northern Ireland and Cairnryan in southern Scotland were cancelled until at least 8pm on Sunday.

Several Loganair flights from Glasgow Airport to the Hebridean islands were cancelled, and 18 CalMac ferry routes were also axed.

Rail operator ScotRail put speed restrictions in place for part of the route between Glasgow and Oban/Mallaig, and the Inverness service to Kyle/Wick.

The AA predicted 21.3 million drivers will hit the road on Sunday, while 22.7 million had been expected on Saturday, slightly fewer than the 23.7 million on Friday which was expected to be the busiest day on the roads since the group’s records began in 2010.

This heavy traffic combined with the bad weather created a ‘perfect storm’ on the transport network ahead of Christmas.

Of the Heathrow cancellations, eighty are on British Airways and involve short-haul domestic and European flights.

Three round-trips to Amsterdam and Glasgow have also been grounded.

Other airlines affected are Aer Lingus; Dublin Eurowings; Cologne Iberia; Madrid KLM; Amsterdam Lufthansa; Frankfurt (two round-trips) SAS; Oslo Swiss; Zurich TAP; Lisbon Turkish Airlines; Istanbul Virgin Atlantic: Miami.

A British Airways spokesman said: ‘Due to adverse weather this weekend, restrictions have been put on the number of flights able to take off and land at Heathrow and therefore we’ve had to make a small number of cancellations.

‘We’re offering free flight changes for those customers booked on short-haul services who don’t wish to travel this weekend, and we will be offering rebooking and refund options as always to those whose journeys are disrupted as a result of the restrictions.

‘While the vast majority of our customers will travel as planned, our teams are working hard to help those who have been affected get their travel plans back on track at this important time of year.’