The maximum amount of lying snow ever recorded on Christmas Day was 27 cm (11 in) at Casement Aerodrome in 2010.Īt Dublin Airport, there have been 12 Christmas Days with snowfall since 1941 (1950, 1956, 1962, 1964, 1970, 1984, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1999, 20). Bookmakers offer odds every year for a white Christmas, which is officially lying snow being recorded at 09:00 local time on Christmas Day, and recorded at either Dublin Airport or Cork Airport (bets are offered for each airport). In Ireland, the prospect of early winter snow is always remote due to the country's mild and wet climate (snowfall is most common in January and February). Climate projections suggest white Christmases in Croatia might become rarer in the future. In continental Croatia, the estimated probability of white Christmas is highest in Gorski Kotar and Lika (50-70%), followed by northwestern Croatia (40-60%) and Slavonia (20-40%). ![]() ![]() The probability of white Christmas in Zagreb has been estimated at 25%. In recent decades, white Christmases in Zagreb have been observed in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001 and – most recently, as of 2018 – in 2007. Īlthough the term white Christmas usually refers to snow, if a significant hail accumulation occurs in an area on Christmas Day, as happened in parts of Melbourne on 25 December 2011, this can also be described as a white Christmas, due to the resulting white appearance of the landscape resembling snow cover. In the United Kingdom the most likely place to see snowfall on a Christmas Day is in North and North Eastern Scotland, in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire or the Highlands. Consequently, according to the Met Office and British bookmakers, even 91 cm (3 ft) of snow on the ground at Christmas, because of a heavy snow fall a few days before, will not constitute a white Christmas, but a few snowflakes mixed with rain will, even if they never reach the ground. In the United Kingdom, although for many a white Christmas simply means a complete covering of snow on Christmas Day, the official definition by the British Met Office and British bookmakers is for snow to be observed falling, however little (even if it melts before it reaches the ground), in the 24 hours of 25 December. In the United States, the official definition of a white Christmas is that there has to be a snow depth of at least 1 in or 2.5 cm on the ground on 25 December in the contiguous United States, and in Canada the official definition is that there has to be more than 2 cm (0.79 in) on the ground on Christmas Day. In most countries, it simply means that the ground is covered by snow at Christmas, but some countries have more strict definitions. The criteria for a "white Christmas" varies. The song, " White Christmas", written by Irving Berlin and sung by Bing Crosby (with the Ken Darby singers and John Scott Trotter and his orchestra) and featured in the 1942 Paramount Pictures film Holiday Inn, is the best-selling single of all time and speaks nostalgically of a traditional white Christmas and has since become a seasonal standard. ![]() The depiction of snow-covered Christmas season found in The Pickwick Papers (1836), A Christmas Carol (1843), and his short stories was apparently influenced by memories of his childhood, which coincided with the coldest decade in England in more than a century. The notion of "white Christmas" was popularized by writings of Charles Dickens. The opposite of a white Christmas, when there is no snow and thus the ground is bare, is traditionally known as a "green Christmas," from the color of bare grass. ![]() Because December is at the beginning of the Southern Hemisphere summer, white Christmases there are extremely rare, except in Antarctica (uninhabited), in the Southern Alps of New Zealand's South Island, and in parts of the Andes in South America as well as the southern tip of the continent, in places like Ushuaia, Argentina. This phenomenon is most common in the northern countries of the Northern Hemisphere. Christmas with the presence of snow, either on Christmas Eve or on Christmas DayĪ white Christmas is a Christmas with the presence of snow, either on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day, depending on local tradition.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |