WITH THE festive season now just around the corner, many of us in north Wales will be dreaming of the possibility of a white Christmas.

Snowfall in December always makes the time of year feel a lot more magical for many of us somehow.

Bing Crosby famously dreamt of it, while movies, advent calendars and Christmas cards are all decorated with snow-filled scenes of a white Christmas.

However, for most parts of the United Kingdom, Christmas is only at the beginning of the period when it's likely to snow.

According to the Met Office, we are far 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.

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The definition that the Met Office uses to define a white Christmas is for one snowflake to be observed falling in the 24 hours of December 25 somewhere in the UK.

Traditionally, they used to use a single location in the country to define a white Christmas, which was the Met Office building in London.

However, with the increase in betting on where will see a white Christmas, the number of locations have increased and can now include sites such as Buckingham Palace, Belfast (Aldergrove Airport), Aberdeen (Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen FC), Edinburgh (Castle), Coronation Street in Manchester and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The Met Office also analyses the data from its observing stations around the UK to provide a complete picture of where snow has fallen or was lying on Christmas Day.

So, just how likely is a white Christmas this year?

The Met Office says: "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."

When was the last white Christmas?

Technically, 2022 was the last white Christmas in the UK with 9% of stations recording snow falling, although none reported any snow lying on the ground.

Before that 2021 and 2020 were also white Christmases, with 6% of weather stations recording snow falling in both years, but less than 1% of stations reported any snow lying on the ground in 2021 and only 4% in 2020.

The last widespread white Christmas in the UK was in 2010. It was extremely unusual, as not only was there snow on the ground at 83% of stations (the highest amount ever recorded) but snow or sleet also fell at 19% of stations.

We also had a white Christmas in 2009, when 13% of stations recorded snow or sleet falling, and 57% reported snow lying on the ground.

Here are some other snow records at Christmas time in Wales, courtesy of the Met Office: 

  • The deepest snow ever recorded on a Christmas Day in Wales was 45cm at Cae Poeth, Gwynedd in 2010.
  • Meanwhile, the warmest Christmas Day was recorded at a temperature of 15.2 °C at Hawarden, Flintshire, in 2015
  • The wettest Christmas Day came when 165.4mm of rain fell at Capel Curig, Gwynedd in 2015 (that's also a UK record!).
  • The windiest Christmas Day in Wales was when speeds of 78mph hit Aberporth, Dyfed back in 1990.
  • The coldest Christmas Day was a freezing -16.5°C at Llysdinum, Powys in 2010

So, the possibility of a 'White Christmas' is not completely out of the question for north Wales just yet!