Experts believe there is a better chance of 2024 delivering a White Christmas than last year, with Aberdeen airport the most likely place to witness snow on December 25. The Gambling.com team have looked at the odds to see where it is most likely to snow this Christmas.
Aberdeen leads the betting as bookies reckon there is a 44.4% chance that it will snow on the north eastern coast of Scotland. The market focus isn’t on whether it snows at all but whether it snows at a city’s airport. That’s why even Aberdeen isn’t given more than a 50/50 chance of witnessing snow.
Glasgow (6/4) and Edinburgh (7/4) follow closely behind. It’s usually less likely to snow around Clydeside and the Forth Estuary due to low altitude.
In England, Coral has priced Newcastle at 7/4 to witness snow, and Leeds-Bradford airport at 7/2. Liverpool and Manchester are priced behind Leeds at 5/1 and 6/1 respectively, while Cardiff’s odds have taken a significant change. The Welsh capital was 9/1 to witness snow in 2023 but is now 6/1.
That shift is also seen in Belfast, which was 4/1 last year but now sits at 2/1 for 2024. London has been pushed out from 6/1 a year ago to 9/1 now. In fact, London had highs of 13C on December 25, 2023. The bookies reckon there’s a 10% chance of snow this time.
Forecasters officially declared a white Christmas in 2023 with snow falling across parts of Scotland, after the record for the highest daily minimum temperature for Christmas Day was broken further south. Snow, sleet and rain moved across parts of Scotland, with Tulloch Bridge and Aviemore recording flakes falling
The Met Office said it made 2023 an “official white Christmas” – defined by them as a single snowflake falling on December 25. It follows the Met Office provisionally recording the highest daily minimum temperature for Christmas Day on record.
Temperatures at Exeter Airport and East Malling, Kent, did not fall below 12.4C, beating the previous record of 11.5C measured at Waddon in Croydon in 1983. In terms of maximum temperatures, the mercury hit 13.6C at Exeter Airport and Merryfield in Somerset – the warmest December 25 since 2016.
It comes after temperatures in Heathrow, south-west London hit 15.3C on Christmas Eve 2023, making it the warmest Christmas Eve since 1997.
The warmest December 25 on record was 15.6C in 1920, while the highest Christmas Eve temperatures of 15.5C were set in Aberdeen and Banff in Scotland in 1931.