A BLAST of festive cold weather is likely for the Lake District over the festive period, says the Met Office.

Forecasters expect colder weather heading in during the early hours of Christmas Eve tomorrow (Weds) and lingering throughout Christmas Day (Thurs) and then part of Boxing Day (Fri) - before it turns again.

Christmas Day locally is expected to be a 'classic winter's day', a spokeswoman told the Gazette.

The latest North West forecast predicts the recent downpours and strong winds over Cumbria to start heading south tonight with conditions settling down and then turning colder and crisper.

Temperatures will start to drop tonight and there will be some brief bursts of sunshine on Christmas Eve with temperatures around 6C, said a spokeswoman.

Christmas Day is expected to be cooler still and a Met Office spokesperson described it as a 'dry, crisp winter's day with plenty of sunshine' with frost likely first thing. 

Overnight into Boxing Day on Friday is likely to be colder still with some frost first thing in the morning and cloudy conditions to start but feeling cooler.

Temperatures on Boxing Day will be 3-to-4 celsius before a weather front is expected to move in from around 3pm or mid-to-late afternoon with some showers wintry on higher ground.

The spokeswoman said that at this stage the low pressure weather front remains uncertain but is likely to affect the latter half of Boxing Day and continue into Saturday before clearing on Sunday.

However, she added that it is not likely to involve the type of heavy downpours and strong winds seen this week.

In the last 24 hours, the Met Office says Shap had the highest recorded rainfall total in the whole of the North West with 35.8 mm (1.4in) falling by 11pm last night.

Meanwhile, Windermere Lake Cruises says it will continue to operate throughout the festive season despite a noticeable rise in the water level as a result of hours of heavy rain over the last couple of days.

The company says it will keep to its commitment to sail every day except Christmas Day after the lake level breached the pedestrian outside its Bowness Bay ticket offices.

It has circulated photographs on social media today showing the extent of the water level, which will drop back in the coming days.

Across Cumbria, a weather warning for rain remains in place until midnight tonight.

There are also several flood alerts - the lowest level of warning - remain in place including local rivers.

There is a more severe flood warning for Keswick campsite and an expectation that levels on Derwentwater could still rise.