With the festive period now upon us, many Brits will be questioning whether a white Christmas is on the cards this year, and whether it's genuinely probable. Yet, when it comes to snowfall, the Met Office has specific criteria that must be met before such a declaration can be made.
Weather forecasters have revealed crucial information for the British public about what's required to officially classify a Christmas as "white", and the answer might come as something of a surprise. Across most of the country, Christmas merely signals the start of the snow season, with January and February typically seeing more wintry conditions, though this doesn't rule out the possibility entirely.
In a YouTube video published online, the Met Office explained precisely what conditions are necessary to declare a white Christmas, which may differ from popular expectations. The organisation's website provides clear guidance on what this entails.
It reads: "For the Met Office to declare a 'white Christmas', a single snowflake has to be observed falling on the 24 hours of December 25 by either an official Met Office observer or by a Met Office automated station. This is because it needs to be officially verified both for our climate records, and also to provide consistency and certainty."
In the footage, the presenter continued: "Our obsession with white Christmases have been around for a long time, even before Bing Crosby famously dreamt of it. There was a cluster of a few really cold Christmases in the 1830s and early 1840s, shortly before the publication of A Christmas Carol in 1843."