Will we’ve a white Christmas? Thanks to Charles Dickens writing about it and Bing Crosby singing about it, snowy scenes have come synonymous with Christmas, but in the UK at least the chances of waking up to a thick mask of snow are veritably slim.

The Met Office defines a white Christmas to be at least one snowflake observed falling in the 24 hours of Christmas Day, nearly in the UK. On average, just over half of all Christmas Days in the UK turn out to be a “ white Christmas”, but a single flake in Edinburgh presumably is n’t what utmost of us have in mind.

The Dickensian scene of wide snow lying on the ground on Christmas Day has passed only four times in the UK since 1960 – in 1981, 1995, 2009 and 2010. Christmas in 2010 was particularly unusual, with snow on the ground at 83 of rainfall stations; the loftiest ever recorded.

White Xmases were more common during the 18th and 19th centuries, with North Atlantic regions still in the grip of the little ice age. And previous to 1752, when Britain espoused the Gregorian timetable and hacked 11 days off the time, the chances of a white Christmas were indeed advanced. But in recent decades global heating has dragged the odds of a white Christmas.

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