CHRISTMAS may now be behind us but there is still one festive question left to answer.did Harry Kershaw get his forecast right?

The answer is yes and no. There is no disputing the fact it was a grey Christmas but the predictions of Messenger's resident weatherman proved to be a couple of days out of sync.

That said, Harry always insists his estimates should be given a three-day margin of error.

Bearing that in mind the actual Christmas Day weather had a stronger resemblance to the December 27 projections and proved to be relatively fine and mild.

By New Year however he appeared to be back on track and revellers in Trafford will have been relieved to see the rain showers peter out by midnight (although the same was not true for other parts of the country where celebrations were completely washed out).

And as Harry said would be the case, 2007 was welcomed in with a healthy dose of rain.

Taking a look forward, Mr Kershaw is preparing to stick his neck out and go against the professionals.

While the general train of thought appears to be that we are in for a reasonably mild winter, Harry suggests instead it will be comparable to 1963 - for those too young to remember that means it will be cold!

Here's what he has to say:

January

4-5 cool and wet

6-9 fine, cold, foggy, calm, no wind

10-12 very cold, east winds

13-14 heavy snow England and Wales

15-17 fine, cold

between 11-17 does not expect afternoon temperatures to reach 0C, day and night below freezing

18-20 cold and sleety

21-31 fine and very cold

February

1-2 cold with sleet

3-10 much milder but wet and windy

11-13 fine, cooler

14-25 mostly fine, cool and night frosts, light snow on hills

26-28 milder and showery with temperatures increasing to 28th up to max of 14C