Meteorologists examining autumn and winter conditions have confirmed that “could” remains available for public use, following renewed interest in whether El Niño may bring winter snow to the UK. The word joins “might,” “possibly,” and “depending” in the national emergency vocabulary reserved for situations involving scarves.
The forecast process is understood to involve studying large-scale climate patterns, then translating them into a format in which everyone asks whether it will snow on the one day they have booked off. Officials have not said this is the system, but it has been granted provisional recognition as a system by the public.
Under the proposed arrangements, every seasonal outlook would be accompanied by a small laminated card reading: “Several outcomes remain technically possible.” Citizens could then place the card beside last year’s unused sled, a drawer full of batteries, and the single bag of salt purchased at the first mention of frost.
A separate unit would assess whether snow, if it occurred, was the correct kind of snow: picturesque before breakfast, disruptive by 9am, and entirely absent by the time anyone found the gloves. The unit would issue findings in spring, when interest has moved on to whether it will be hot enough to complain about.
BBC News published its look ahead on 15 September 2026. By then, the country had already begun its traditional preparation for winter: demanding a precise answer from a season that has not yet happened.
