Leeds snow forecast: Latest on chances of a White Christmas
Santa is winging his way through the skies towards Leeds but will he be fighting his way through snow? The Yorkshire Evening Post newsroom investigates..
As we wish you a Merry Christmas, we have taken a last minute look to see if there any chance it will be a white one. The answer, as you have probably suspected, is probably not but here’s the latest on chances of snow across the Christmas period - and sight of a snowflake is not actually an impossibility.
The official Met Office forecast shows Christmas week is expected to be colder or more settled with high pressure dominating. This means generally dry weather with chilly breezes and frost rather than heavy rain or now. There is only a small chance of light showers that could include snow over higher ground but no strong signal for widespread snow on Christmas Day. Any snow that does fall is likely to melt quickly and may not settle.
One snowflake observed falling on Christmas Day anywhere in the UK
Leeds normally sees very few snow days in December, on average around one to two days for the whole month. Some forecast models suggest a possibility of light snow on December 25 but this is not guaranteed and this would be a small amount.
Odds from weather models and climate analysis put the chance of any snow at all on Christmas Day as very low, with rough odds of 20-30% based on historical patterns.
What you will probably see is a cold and mostly dry Christmas Day with temperatures around two to seven degrees and frost overnight. If precipitation does occur, it might start as sleet or snow flurries but generally turn to rain before settling at Leeds typical winter temperature. So snow is possible, but unlikely in the city itself.
Yorkshire has not had a proper white Christmas for years, with the last most memorable event being 2009/2010 though there has been lighter snowfall on the day since - notably in 2020. The last official White Christmas in the UK was 2023 with snowfall but no lying snow. 2010 was the last widespread snowy Christmas with significant snow lying across most of the UK.
Since 1960, a true Dickens-style Christmas with snow lying on the ground has only happened four times; 1981,1995, 2009 and 2010.
Wishing you a Happy Christmas, snow or not!