Scotland's weather: ‘Technical’ white Christmas recorded as Met Office extends winter warning

The Met Office has recorded a white Christmas after snow fell in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland, although less than seen across the UK earlier this month.

The forecaster recorded either sleet or snow falling at five of its weather stations across the UK on December 25, with Edinburgh one of three in Scotland and another two in Northern Ireland.

A yellow be aware warning for snow and ice was extended by the the Met Office for most of Scotland until 3pm on Tuesday.

The warning reads: “Wintry showers will continue through this evening, gradually fading overnight into the early hours of Tuesday morning. Accumulating snow will be focused across Highland and Grampian overnight with a further 1-4 cm likely in places above around 150 metres, although patchy snow could accumulate at low levels especially in the far north.

Snow fall in Biggar in South Lanarkshire. A yellow alert for snow and ice has been issued by the Met Office for most of Scotland until 1800 hours tonight. Picture date: Monday December 26, 2022.

"The main hazard, however, looks like being ice developing on untreated surfaces. Then through Tuesday morning, a spell of snow is expected to move northeast, but gradually turning to rain at low levels through the afternoon. 1-4 cm of snow could fall above around 100 metres, before a thaw commences, but larger accumulations of 5-10 cm seem likely on ground above around 250 metres.”

Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said: “Officially it was a white Christmas but, of course, a lot of people think of those perfect deep-snow Christmas card scenes and actually we didn’t really see any snow settle at lower levels yesterday.

“What we define a white Christmas as is just a few snowflakes falling, even if it’s mixed with rain, so it’s a technical white Christmas but, for most places, particularly in England and Wales, it was too mild.”

In Scotland, the forecaster recorded snow at Edinburgh’s Gogarbank weather station, Loch Glascarnoch in Ross and Cromarty, and Altnaharra in Sutherland.

Across the Irish Sea, snow fell in Glennane, County Armagh, and at Lough Fea in Londonderry.

“Most of the day was too mild for snow and the showers were falling for rain, but in the evening it got colder and we started to see those showers turn to sleet and then to snow,” said the meteorologist.

But for most places, the snow has come too late to declare a white Christmas.

“We’ve got snow on the ground across Cumbria, quite widely across Scotland this morning, even at lower levels,” Mr Morgan added.

“If the colder air had been a little bit earlier to arrive then it would have been a white Christmas, but it’s certainly a white Boxing Day for some of us.”

Last Christmas 6% of Met Office stations recorded snow fall, but just 1% had snow lying on the ground. In 2017 some 11% of sites recorded snow falling.

However, forecasters have to go back to 2010 to find a December 25 where people would remember waking up to snow on the ground.

On Christmas Day, the Met Office recorded a high of 12.7C in Chertsey, Surrey, while Loch Glascarnoch recorded the lowest temperature of 2.7C.