'Technical' white Christmas in Scotland as snow falls in Edinburgh and Highlands

The Met Office has recorded a white Christmas after snow fell in parts of Scotland, although less than seen across the UK earlier this month.

The forecaster recorded either sleet or snow falling at five of its weather stations across the UK on December 25, with Edinburgh one of three across the country alongside Loch Glascarnoch in Ross and Cromarty, and Altnaharra in Sutherland.

Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said: “Officially it was a white Christmas but, of course, a lot of people think of those perfect deep-snow Christmas card scenes and actually we didn’t really see any snow settle at lower levels yesterday.

“What we define a white Christmas as is just a few snowflakes falling, even if it’s mixed with rain, so it’s a technical white Christmas.”

The met site at Gogarbank in Edinburgh has recorded sleet at 10pm which should make it a white Christmas for the capital, although this will need confirmation from the Met Office. This would be the first white Christmas here since 2010. #whitechristmas #uksnow pic.twitter.com/ISsRuY7akx
— Sean Batty (@SeanBattyTV) December 25, 2022

Last Christmas 6% of Met Office stations recorded snow fall, but just 1% had snow lying on the ground. In 2017 some 11% of sites recorded snow falling.

However, forecasters have to go back to 2010 to find a December 25 where people would remember waking up to snow on the ground.

On Christmas Day, the Met Office recorded a high of 12.7C in Chertsey, Surrey, while Loch Glascarnoch recorded the lowest temperature of 2.7C.