There is a 50% chance in some areas
A weather expert has revealed the chance of a white Christmas this year for regions around the UK.
Christmas is a time synonymous with chilly evenings, roaring fires and a dusting of winter snow.
This said, snow in the UK isn’t exactly common and the pleasure of enjoying a white Christmas is often reserved for those lucky enough to jet off somewhere colder in Europe.
However, this year could be different with chilling weather systems potentially bringing the ‘white Christmas’ just like the ones we used to know, or at least dreamed of.
Even back in July there were whispers of La Nina weather system growing in influence, potentially bringing colder weather, not quite at Beast From The East levels, but not far off.
Experts at OLGB.com have since backed up this claim, releasing odds on each major city’s chance of getting snow at Christmas.
Unsurprisingly, the most likely cities to wake up to a white Christmas are all in Scotland, with Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen all given a 50% chance.
From here percentages only tumble, with Newcastle having the highest chance in England at 33.3% chance, followed by Leeds at 25%.
The full list is as follows:
- Glasgow 1/1 50.0%
- Edinburgh 1/1 50.0%
- Aberdeen 1/1 50.0%
- Newcastle 2/1 33.3%
- Leeds 3/1 25.0%
- Manchester 4/1 20.0%
- Belfast 5/1 20.0%
- Dublin 6/1 14.3%
- Birmingham 7/1 12.5%
- Liverpool 7/1 12.5%
- Bristol 8/1 11.1%
- Cardiff 9/1 10.0%
According to the Met Office: “Christmas is only at the beginning of the period when it’s likely to snow. We are more likely to see snow between January and March than in December, with snow or sleet falling an average 3.9 days in December, compared to 5.3 days in January, 5.6 days in February and 4.2 days in March.
“White Christmases were more frequent in the 18th and 19th centuries, even more so before the change of calendar in 1752 which effectively brought Christmas Day back by 12 days. Climate change has also brought higher average temperatures over land and sea and this generally reduced the chances of a white Christmas.
“We can accurately forecast if snow is likely on any given Christmas Day up to five days beforehand. Since 1960, around half of the years have seen at least 5% of the network record snow falling on Christmas Day. This means we can probably expect more than half of all Christmas Days to be a ‘white Christmas’
“However, the Dickensian scene of widespread snow lying on the ground on Christmas Day is much rarer. There has only been a widespread covering of snow on the ground (where more than 40% of stations in the UK reported snow on the ground at 9 am) four times since 1960—in 1981, 1995, 2009 and 2010.”
