One month to go: Will it be a white Christmas?

With one month until Christmas, there's one question on everyone's lips. Will it be a 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.

Forecasting snow is incredibly tricky, and can only accurately be done a few days ahead. Although even then, a lot of ingredients need to align for snow to fall. We are far more likely to see snow in the UK and Ireland later in winter, between January and March.

In the longer-range outlook however, Meteorologists can gather how the conditions will be trending around Christmas time, for example if it is looking colder than average, or drier than average.

For now, there are certainly signals for it to turn colder through December, but there's still plenty of time for a pattern shift. As for Christmas Day, keep up to date on our app to find out the latest.