WEATHER expert Graham Fullarton has dashed hopes of a white Christmas.

The local meteorologist said there is little chance of any snow in Bolton on Christmas Day.

Bookmakers are offering odds of 5 to 2 on snow falling next Wednesday in the UK, but Mr Fullarton is not expecting any sign of that type of weather in Bolton.

He said: "There is very little chance of a White Christmas around here."

Mr Fullarton's records reveal that over the last 12 months Bolton has experienced one of the warmest years since records began.

Mr Fullarton, who has a weather station in the back garden of his Turton home, said his figures so far in 2002 reveal the mean temperature has been 10 degrees Celcius -- above the normal average.

Bolton basked in Mediterranean temperatures of 26 degrees on August 17 -- the warmest day of the year.

But Bolton has not escaped the rain. February was actually the wettest month since records began. Throughout the year as a whole a total of of 65 inches of rain has fallen on Bolton.

And June 14 saw the biggest downfall, when more than one and a half inches of rain fell -- in only one hour.

Mr Fullarton, a data protection manager at the Royal Bolton Hospital, said his data showed that the climate of the town was changing. He said: "Over the past couple of years the statistics show that Bolton is warming up.

"In the future we could be having much hotter summers but we could also be having much more stormier winters, with a lot more gales.

"It's difficult to say if the temperature rise is due to global warming, although the trend over the past two years does show that it is getting warmer in Bolton."

And Christmas Day, Mr Fullarton says, it will be wet.