Bermuda should get a “brief respite” from bad weather over Christmas Day but our winter as a whole looks to remain cold.Bermuda Weather Service (BWS) meteorologist Jeff Torgerson said winds should taper off later this evening.“I wish I could say it will be long-lived, but once again Sunday we’ve got a trough coming through.”Strong winds and showers are predicted to return by next week. Mr Torgerson called the winter thus far “one of our worst”.“We’ve already broken five daily low temperatures, and we broke all of the lows recorded for this month on December 21. We’re still below average on precipitation but we’ve been gradually catching up.“At [LF Wade International] airport where our official records are taken, we haven’t had even a half-inch precipitation on any one day this month.“Precipitation in Bermuda is ten inches below average for the year. We’re still looking to see near daily showers for the next several days at least.”A low pressure trough over the west Atlantic has been driving our weather throughout November and December, he said.“It has maintained itself as a very strong feature, and when you have these deep lows perpetually in place at this time of year, you get a lot of surface fronts.“Every minor perturbation up there amounts to surface troughs and fronts. We’ve been getting at least two or three a week.”Asked for a long-term forecast, Mr Torgerson said: “It’s not a bad bet that we’re going to have a long winter.“We might get another break in early January, but the longer range trends we’ve seen have pointed to a colder than normal winter.”