One day till Christmas...
by Kirsty McCabe
There is still a good chance we’ll be waking up to a White Christmas, especially for those living in Scotland, Northern Ireland, northwest England and northwest Wales. With snow showers already falling in northern and western Scotland, we could see as much as 10cm of snow falling here over the next few days.
For the rest of England and Wales the chances of a Dickensian Christmas are slim, but it only takes a single snowflake falling on the roof of the Met Office buildings in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Aberdeen or Belfast to ruin a bookie’s Christmas. And that certainly can’t be ruled out.
Statistically speaking, White Christmases are something of a rare beast with the last official one in 2001. The elusive single snowflake is spotted roughly once every five years, but a full-on blanket of snow only happens once in every twenty-five years.
Quite often, the simple reason we don’t get snow falling on Christmas Day itself is because Christmas occurs at the start of the snow season. We’re much more likely to see snow in the depths of January. If only they hadn’t changed the calendar in 1752, which effectively brought Christmas forward by 12 days.
Amid all the anticipation it’s easy to forget that snow brings problems as well as festive cheer. Don’t forget to take care if you’re travelling over the next few days. After today’s rain across Northern Ireland, southern Scotland, England and Wales the temperatures will drop sharply tonight and there is a risk of icy patches on the roads.
The winds may have calmed down after yesterday’s 70 mph gusts, but it remains pretty blustery over the next few days. In particular, northeast Scotland could see blizzard conditions late on Christmas Day as strong winds whip up the snow here.
So wrap up warm, take care on the roads and don’t forget to have a very merry Christmas.
|
|
