Met Office gives early verdict on chances of Christmas snow | Weather | News

Many people dream of a white Christmas from a young age, thanks to nostalgic childhood memories and their depiction in traditional holiday songs and stories, such as those by Irving Berlin or Charles Dickens. But most UK residents have never witnessed such an event unless they have traveled abroad over the Christmas period.

In fact, although a few snowflakes occur every one to two years on average, widespread snowfall on the ground by 9 a.m. on Christmas Day is much rarer. This has only happened four times since 1960; the last example was 2010, when 83% of weather stations had snow on the ground. As snow falls and temperatures drop across much of the country this week, average November conditions are expected to return, quelling the threat of further winter. Instead, Brits can expect heavy rain rather than festive showers. Now the Met Office has released its first long-term weather forecast, which includes the Christmas period, to see what our chances are of waking up to a white Christmas.

The Met Office said early indications were that snow was unlikely to fall in England over the Christmas period.

The long-range forecast covering 23 December makes no mention of snow anywhere in the UK. This pattern is expected to continue throughout that week, including Christmas Day, but the weather agency will release its long-range forecasts later this week that will highlight that day.

For now, the long-range forecast from Tuesday 9th December to Tuesday 23rd December is as follows: “Quite unstable until mid-December, probably due to wet and windy weather, especially in the northwest.

“Drier, more settled periods are possible, especially in the southeast. Details are unclear later in the month, but it could be wetter in the south and perhaps a little drier in the north. Temperatures will likely be generally above average.”

But the weather agency’s website warns that the UK-scale weather forecast will last more than five days; because this is “when the chaotic nature of the atmosphere begins to come into play; minor events occurring over the Atlantic now can have potentially significant impacts on our weather conditions in the UK within a matter of days.”

It continues: “Our long-term forecasts (updated daily) provide an indication of how the weather across the whole of the UK may change or be different from normal (i.e. hotter, colder, wetter, drier).”

This comes as the odds of a white Christmas drop Mirror. Last week, William Hill had a 6/5 chance of snowfall in Aberdeen on December 25, while the odds were 6/4 in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The bookmaker said Manchester had a 4/1 chance.

Although a white Christmas is unlikely, some forecasters are still predicting snow will fall and temperatures will drop to -7°C in parts of the UK in December. New weather maps from WXCharts and Netweather reveal parts of the country will be colder next week, with areas in Scotland, England and Wales forecasting light dustfalls of up to 1mm per hour on December 3. The worst affected areas will be the Highlands, Cumbria and Conwy.