There's a chance we could see some sleety showers this weekend as temperatures look set to take a dip.

According to the Island’s own weather oracle, Darren Prescott, there could be a short cold snap on Saturday and Sunday with highs reaching just 5C.

Last week he had reiterated his prediction that there is very little chance of the white stuff after revealing temperatures so far this month were above average.

But weather can change so abruptly, Mr Prescott has now said there’s a chance any showers could bring sleet and there could even be a possibility of snow this weekend over the top of the North Downs.

Mr Prescott, who monitors the weather from his home in Bay View, says there is even a one in seven chance of sleet or snow on Christmas Day.

So far, he says the weather this month has been almost opposite to this time last year.

The heavy snow in December 2010, the coldest since the 1890s, was caused by frequent northerly and north-easterly winds.

This month’s average temperature so far is about 7.3C, which is just over 0.5C above what it would usually be, due to the jet stream, which is the belt of high-altitude winds that drives our weather.

Mr Prescott explained that last year the jet stream stayed south for the whole month, which allowed colder air to flood in from the north east and bring snow.

At the moment the jet stream is much further north, meaning we have seen a typical winter mix of some colder days interspersed with milder days.

This has all been driven by the westerly winds which accounts for how breezy it has felt recently.

And it looks as though the strong winds are set to continue, with Friday looking particularly bad.

November was the second mildest one on record (back to 1659). At 10.2C average, it was just over 2C above normal.

The warmest day was Thursday, November 3, with a high of 18.6C and the coldest was the morning of Monday, November 28, with a low of -0.7C – the only air frost of the month.

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As well as being a very mild November, it was also quite dry according to our resident rainfall expert. Ken Beal, who measures the wet stuff from his home in Eastchurch, said 25.6mm fell last month.

That compares with 45.1mm in November 2010.

Mr Beal also says 2011’s rainfall total is still well behind average and we could be on the way to having one of the driest years since local records began.

So far, he has recorded about 360mm. The average rainfall in a year is around 520mm. The wettest year Mr Beal has recorded was in 2000, when 790mm fell. The driest on record was 1996, when there was 340mm.

He said: “We are still quite a lot short of the normal rainfall for the year – it’s a bit below average. It has been dry and we do need the rain. What we need though is about 5mm to 10mm a month – not all at once!”