Chances of white Christmas extremely low, Met Office says

The chances of people enjoying a white Christmas this year are “extremely low”, the Met Office has said.

Forecasts predict drier conditions next week, although temperatures are expected to fall gradually.

For the Met Office to declare a white Christmas, a single snowflake has to be observed falling anywhere in the UK in the 24 hours of December 25.

Since 1960 more than half of all Christmas Days have been declared a white Christmas.

The last white Christmas was in 2023, when 11% of weather stations across the UK recorded snow falling, despite none reporting any snow settling on the ground.

Widespread covering of snow on the ground was only reported four times since 1960 – in 1981, 1995, 2009 and 2010.

Tom Morgan, operational meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “We are confident that next week we’ll see a transition to much drier conditions.

“That’s primarily because high pressure is going to dominate the UK. And through this month, so far, it’s been low pressure that’s been bringing the very, very wet weather that we’ve seen.”

He said there may still be some rain and a few showers through the Christmas period, but temperatures may not be cold enough before December 25 to have snow on the day.

He said: “There’s certainly not any significant signal for widespread snow or deep or any kind of really settling snow whatsoever at all at this stage.

“So, for the vast majority, the chance of any white Christmas as such is extremely low.

“And I think generally… if you want any snow, it’s going to be likely that you’re going to be disappointed, really, because we’re not expecting any kind of Christmas card scenes or any travel disruption either.

“It should actually be a much better period for travelling next week, we aren’t anticipating any warnings, and it should just be relatively dry, often cloudy, and temperatures just gradually falling lower, day by day, but not particularly cold either.”

Public weather forecasts for Christmas Day will be available from December 19.