One of our Facebook page followers asked today if we knew whether Christmas 2013 had been a White Christmas anywhere in the UK. Having been so pre-occupied writing about storms, floods and general weather forecasts over the last couple of weeks, we were unsure.
To officially be a White Christmas, a single flake of snow has to be observed falling by a Met Office weather station between midnight Christmas Eve and Midnight Christmas day. Snow on the ground that has fallen on the days preceding Christmas do not count.
So today we asked the Met Office whether or not they had observed any snow fall on Christmas day 2013, and this was their response...
@uk_forecast Unfortunately no snow was reported by Met Office Observers on Xmas Day 2013 - see link for more info http://t.co/LBwC7iN8ZL ^MS
— Met Office (@metoffice) January 7, 2014
On their website, the Met office say...
Using technology such as radar, webcams and ground based sensors combined with the expert opinion of experienced forecasters, the Met Office is able to declare that no snow was reported by our Met Office Observers on Christmas Day 2013.
Although a few of our automated weather stations recorded sleet or snow over some hills, Christmas this year was green for most of Britain rather than white.
So officially it was not a White Christmas anywhere in the UK in 2013.
Got a weather related question? Ask us on our Facebook page.