The Christmas snow archive
When was the last white Christmas?
The answer is local. Revisit your town’s winters past, separate falling flakes from snow on the ground, and see what the records can tell us.
A Christmas to remember
2010
Snow on the ground at 83% of Met Office stations.
A remarkable national snapshot. Your town’s own snow story may be very different.
Source: Met Office retrospective, reviewed October 2025 →Find your place in the archive
Christmas snow history by town
These are the latest years meeting our model’s snow threshold on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The reconstruction runs from 1991 to 2024; later Christmases are outside this timeline.
London
London · Latest modelled snow
Birmingham
West Midlands · Latest modelled snow
Glasgow
Scotland · Latest modelled snow
Manchester
North West England · Latest modelled snow
Sheffield
Yorkshire and the Humber · Latest modelled snow
Leeds
Yorkshire and the Humber · Latest modelled snow
Edinburgh
Scotland · Latest modelled snow
Liverpool
North West England · Latest modelled snow
Bristol
South West England · Latest modelled snow
Cardiff
Wales · Latest modelled snow
Leicester
East Midlands · Latest modelled snow
Bradford
Yorkshire and the Humber · Latest modelled snow
Belfast
Northern Ireland · Latest modelled snow
Coventry
West Midlands · Latest modelled snow
Brent
London · Latest modelled snow
Birkenhead
North West England · Latest modelled snow
Nottingham
East Midlands · Latest modelled snow
Islington
London · Latest modelled snow
Reading
South East England · Latest modelled snow
Kingston upon Hull
Yorkshire and the Humber · Latest modelled snow
Preston
North West England · Latest modelled snow
Swansea
Wales · Latest modelled snow
Newcastle upon Tyne
North East England · Latest modelled snow
Southend-on-Sea
East of England · Latest modelled snow
01 / Reading the records
Falling snow
A flurry counts for the official definition when verified on 25 December. It does not have to settle.
02 / Reading the records
Snow on the ground
Station snow-depth records measure what was lying at observation time. Snow may have fallen days earlier.
03 / Reading the records
Our local reconstruction
A 1 km temperature-and-rainfall model estimates snow on 24 or 25 December. Each local page labels it separately from observations.
Frequently asked questions
- When was the last white Christmas in my town?
- Search for your town to see its latest modelled Christmas snow year in our 1991–2024 reconstruction. Where a suitable station is within 75 km, we also show recorded snow depth on 25 December. A nearby station does not establish what happened on your street.
- Why is a white Christmas different from snow on the ground?
- The Met Office definition requires verified falling snow on 25 December. Snow left on the ground from an earlier day can look more Christmassy without meeting that definition. Our local reconstruction uses the broader 24–25 December window, and our station records measure snow depth on Christmas Day.
- Why is Christmas 2010 so memorable?
- The Met Office retrospective reports snow on the ground at 83% of its stations on Christmas Day 2010. That widespread covering explains why so many people remember it, even where fresh snow did not fall on the day.
- Are these local snow years observed or modelled?
- The local timeline is modelled from HadUK-Grid temperature and rainfall observations, using an estimated precipitation phase. The separate station tables contain NOAA GHCN-D snow-depth observations. Missing station years are labelled as missing, never assumed to be snow-free.
- Does the archive include Christmas 2025?
- The local model reconstruction currently ends in 2024. Some nearby weather-station records include Christmas 2025; each station table shows its own coverage. We do not infer later years from the model archive.
A little more Christmas