A not so white Christmas in the UK by John Hammond
With every Christmas in the UK comes the anticipation of a covering of snow. However with dull, cloudy and mild conditions across much of the UK, Christmas 2008 has failed to be a white one.
A white Christmas is defined by the bookies as one flake of snow falling on the roof of one of the Met Office observation stations across the country, between midnight on Christmas Eve and midnight on Christmas Day.
According to statistics taken from records over the past 50 years there is a 10% chance that London will see a white Christmas, with a 38% chance in Lerwick, Scotland. The last official white Christmas was in 2004, when widespread snow hit Northern Ireland, Scotland, and parts of Wales, the Midlands, north-east and the far south-west England.
Across lowland Britain, on average only a few days per winter month see falling snow, the majority of which occur in January or February. More often than not the weather over the Christmas period is characterised by mild weather, with the familiar Christmas card snow scene the exception rather than the rule.
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