North West could be left dreaming of a white Christmas with just 12% chance of snow

Rochdale could be left dreaming of a white Christmas

The north west could be left dreaming of a white Christmas as the region has just a 12% chance of waking up to a white Christmas this year.

Barratt Homes has teamed up with the Met Office and sourced data that has analysed the past 25 years of winter weather to determine what conditions you are most likely to experience throughout this festive time of the year.

To work out the likelihood of a white Christmas, analysis considered how many times snow fell on Christmas eve and Christmas day and whether any snow was still settled on Christmas Day.

Analysed this way, if there was snow on the ground but no snowfall on either 24 or 25 of December, then this still counted as a white Christmas.

According to the data, there have been just three white Christmases in the north west in the last 25 years with the last one taking place in 2004. During the festive period (21 December until 4 January) in our region, it is most likely to snow on Christmas Day.

The region most likely to wake up to a winter wonderland on 25 December is Scotland, with a 44% of snow and a total of eleven white Christmases in the last 25 years.

However, past records also show that the north west is likely to experience the least amount of snow.

The highest depth of snow recorded was just 9cm, opposed to Scotland’s 43cm record.

Steven Davey, Industry and Infrastructure Manager at the Met Office, said: “While we know in the UK that weather history isn’t a great way of predicting the weather future, we’re pleased our historical data can give people a nostalgic trip down memory lane to Christmases of the recent past.”

A spokesperson from Barratt Homes added: “As Christmas draws ever closer, we thought it would be a bit of fun to try and predict this festive season’s weather based on the past 25 years of Met Office data. ‘Will it be a white Christmas?’ is the weather prediction that everyone wants to know.”