White Christmas odds: Newcastle one of the cities most likely to see snowfall this festive season

That’s right, it may still only be October but the nights are closing in and it won’t be long before Christmas is at the forefront of our minds.

The Met Office forecast for the big day may still be over a month away, but some bookmakers are already taking bets on snowfall on Christmas Day - with industry experts also having their say.

The best odds come from cities north of the border, with Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh all listed at evens.

Heading back into England and Wales, Newcastle takes the top spot with odds of 2/1 - the only city to have this price.

Elsewhere there are odds of 3/1 for Leeds to see snowfall on Christmas Day while Manchester is currently priced at 4/1.

Birmingham and Liverpool are both listed with odds of 7/1 with Bristol and Cardiff rouding off the top 12 with odds of 8/1 and 9/1 respectively.

Jake Ashton, Entertainment Betting Expert at OLBG commented:

“Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh all sit at evens favourites to see snowfall on Christmas Day this year with potential Arctic conditions expected to stick in the North of the UK for the next few months.”

When did Newcastle have a white Christmas?

The Met Office defines a white Christmas as at least one snowflake to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25 December. This means white Christmases are slightly more common than you may expect.

However, the last time we saw snow fall and settle in substantial amounts on Christmas Day came back in 2010.

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The winter of 2010–2011 was a weather event that brought heavy snowfalls. During this time 83% of weather stations recorded snow lying on the ground.

The 2010 White Christmas was reported as extremely unusual. It was the coldest Christmas ever recorded in the UK.

Before that disruptive winter, the UK hadn’t seen widespread snow like it since 1993.