Will the North East have a white Christmas this year?

Are you dreaming of a white Christmas just like the ones you used to know? Well, the countdown is well and truly on for the big day in just over a month and the big question is whether it will snow.

The definition that the Met Office uses to define a white Christmas is for one snowflake to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25 December somewhere in the UK.

Forecasters say we are more likely to see snow in January and February than in December, with snow actually settling on the ground (snow lying) an average of 3 days in December, compared to 3.3 days in January, 3.4 days in February and 1.9 days in March.

Well, according to the Met Office is is too early to call - and we'll only know much closer the day as they can't forecast that far in advance.

Mark Sidaway is a Deputy Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office and looks at the medium and extended range forecasts.

He said: “Despite what some headlines suggest, it’s not possible to accurately pick out an ‘exact date’ for snow to hit the UK weeks in advance, but we do have some long-range outputs that can help us to understand the chances.

“Different projections of the future are run multiple times through weather forecasting models. Often these will be quite similar at short ranges, but by the time you get weeks ahead, these can have a significant range of possible weather conditions in the future.

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“It’s our job as meteorologists to look at all these projections and understand what it’s telling us about the likelihood of conditions.

“Certainty will tend to increase as we get closer to the time, and the best indication of impactful snow in the forecast would be when a Met Office National Severe Weather Warning is issued.”

The last UK wide white Christmas was in 2010 where 83% of weather stations across the country reported snow on the ground.