Christmas Day! Defining a white Christmas

It's officially Christmas Day, but what defines a proper white Christmas?

In the UK, the definition of a white Christmas was set by the Met Office. It used to be that a snowflake had to fall on the Met Office's building in London, but today it's if just one snowflake falls somewhere.

In Ireland, Met Éireann similarly state that a white Christmas is defined by the measure of any quantity of snow falling anytime over Christmas Day. The last Irish white Christmas was in 2010, with a spectacular 27cm of snow.

Meanwhile in the UK, 2021 was the last white Christmas with 6% of stations recording snow falling, but less than 1% of stations reported any snow lying on the ground. The last widespread white Christmas in the UK was also in 2010.

So whether you're having a white Christmas, or just a regular green one, we hope you're having a very merry one either way!