Will There Be A White Christmas In 2015?

There is no shortage of things to get excited about in the run-up to Christmas this year but many people are hopeful that there may be a White Christmas in store. This is a very traditional aspect of Christmas that can help to ramp up the festive spirit for many people. Christmas time is the start of the period when we can expect to see snow in the UK, we are far more likely to experience snow from January to March but due to the work of Charles Dickens, snow has become synonymous with the festive period.

For there to be a White Christmas, the criteria was that there had to be at least one snowflake observed to fall in the entire day of the 25th of December. It used to be that the location where snow was required was the Met Office building, which was in London. This meant that many people across the United Kingdom actually experienced snow for Christmas but White Christmas bets were not successful because there was no recorded snowfall in London.

Snow is more likely the further north you are.

Unsurprisingly, the further north you go, the more likely it seems as though there will be snow this Christmas. Punters using Ladbrokes will find that Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland both carry odds of 2/1 for a White Christmas in 2015 but you’ll find odds of 7/4 in Aberdeen. Newcastle Upon Tyne sees odds of 5/2 for a White Christmas while Belfast in Northern Ireland is listed at 7/2. Manchester and Liverpool are both listed at 4/1, the same odds as London. If you are looking for an outsider, Penzance, at the foot of the country can be found at odds of 10/1. Most people that place a White Christmas bet do so for fun or to add some festive spirit to the season, as opposed to looking to make a lot of money. Weather forecasts become more reliable in a five day period but of course, the bookmakers are aware of the short term predictions as any punter. You may not make a lot of money out of  White Christmas betting but it can certainly add a touch of fun to the special day.

White Christmas bets can take place all across the United Kingdom

Nowadays, there is a wider range of White Christmas bets in the UK and as well as betting on whether there is a White Christmas in the UK, it is possible to bet on regional variations. A number of areas and locations around the country will be monitored on Christmas Day and if snow falls there at any point on the 25th, a White Christmas bet will win. Examples of alternative destinations for a White Christmas bet include Coronation Street in Manchester, Glasgow Airport, Edinburgh Castle, the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and Buckingham Castle. It may be worth someone’s time to request White Christmas odds for their local area, but there are plenty of online options from a range of online bookmakers.

The last time there was widespread snow in the UK on Christmas Day was in 2010. This was an extremely unusual day as there was snow on the ground at 83% of the stations in the UK and snow was recorded to have fallen at 19% of the stations. In 2009, 13% of stations recorded snow falling while 57% recorded snow on the ground. In the past years, there have been 38 recorded White Christmases, which means that the expectations are just over half of the time.