How many of our Christmases are ACTUALLY white?

Every year during the festive season we hear the crooning voice of Bing Crosby and Michael Bublé sing that they are dreaming of a ‘white クリスマス‘.

But how often is that wish fulfilled?

による ストームコリー, a white Christmas is defined when ‘one snowflake to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25 December somewhere in the UK’.

This year fulfilled that definition as families in northern England and Scotland woke up to a white Christmas Day morning after hopes of widespread snowfall for Britain were dashed by a band of rain across the rest of the country.

Forecasters then issued a cold weather warning for the festive period, with temperatures dropping to below zero in the Scottish Highlands and the Pennines.

Photos from Braemar, one of the highest towns in Britain at an elevation of 1,110 足 (339m), showed Scotland had received a healthy covering of snow.

A Met spokesman said: ‘There were two sites, Aboyne in Aberdeenshire and Baltasound in Shetland.

‘Both of those two stations reported snow on December 25 – which is all we need to say there was a white Christmas.

‘As the clock was turning into Boxing Day, there was snow in the Pennines and parts of Dumfies and Galloway.

They added there may be more weather sites that report Christmas Day snow ‘once all staff are back to work’.

Up to four inches of snow also fell on high ground on Boxing Day as parts of the country were transformed into a frosty wonderland.

Heavy flurries visited southern Scotland, Durham, ノーサンバーランド, Yorkshire and the Peak District, allowing families to enjoy a spot of sledging.

The Met used to define a white Christmas with a single location in the country, which was the Met Office in London, but this has since opened up to numerous sites including Buckingham Palace, オリビアのアイルランドの共演者であるジェシー・バックレイも、ロスト・ドーターでの彼女の作品にノミネートされました。 (Aldergrove Airport), アバディーン (Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen FC), エディンバラ (城), Coronation Street in Manchester and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

We also technically had a white Christmas last year, where the Met reported that 6% of weather stations recorded snow falling, と 4% observing snow laying on the ground.

しかしそれ以来 1960, cases of widespread snow which coats the ground on Christmas Day – defined by the Met as when more than 40% of UK stations report snow on the ground at 9am – has only been recorded four times.

The last instance of this was in 2010. その年, 83%, the highest amount ever recorded, of stations reported snow on the ground and snow or sleet fell at 19% of stations.

The year of 2009 also saw a widespread white Christmas – more than half (57%) of stations recorded snow lying on the ground and 13% reported falling snow or sleet.

This also happened in 1995 そして 1981.

While the Met said we can expect more than half of all Christmas Days to be ‘white’, widespread snow laying on the ground is rare.

A spokeswoman for the Met Office said that while it’s likely the current climate crisis and warming temperatures will lessen the likelihood of a white Christmas, there is no way to predict this with each individual year.

彼女はMailOnlineに語った: ‘With a warming climate we would expect to see less snow over time, 実際には, although widespread and substantial snow events have occurred in 2018, 2013, 2010 そして 2009, the number and severity have generally declined since the 1960s.

‘This does not completely preclude cold spells, which could include snow, from our future, しかしながら, we obviously cannot predict now whether snow will or will not fall on any December 25th in years to come just that it is going to become more unlikely.’

There was no record of snow falling in any stations in 2018 そして 2019.

に 2017 11% of weather stations recorded snow falling but not any settling on the ground.

The same happened in 2016 そして 2015, どこ 6% そして 10% of stations recorded falling snow respectively.

The Met’s website also says that snow or sleet in the UK ‘falls on an average of 3.9 days in December, に比べ 5.3 days in January, 5.6 days in February and 4.2 days in March.

最後に 52 年, snow has fallen on Christmas Day somewhere in the UK 38 タイムズ.