How Met Office and bookies decide if it’s White Christmas – it involves football

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The Met Office has revealed the standard it uses to determine whether the UK has endured a "White Christmas".

Using football stadiums, soap hotspots and tourist attractions to figure the level of snow on Christmas Day as they search for a "single snowflake". Standards for a White Christmas is a "fine line", according to weather experts who spoke to the Daily Star.

Their specifics for deciding if there was a White Christmas comes as betting outlets confirm they will adhere to Met Office standards when paying out on bets for or against snowfall on December 25.

READ MORE: Met Office gives UK White Christmas hint as it predicts 'wintry showers'

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Alex Apati of Ladbrokes said: "The latest odds suggest a White Christmas is back on the cards for parts of the UK, although it's unlikely Londoners will see snow any time soon.

"For avoidance of doubt, we'll always refer to the Met Office, so if a White Christmas on the Corrie cobbles is good enough for them, it's good enough for us too!" Those standards, now outlined by the Met, mean there are just 24 hours to confirm or deny snowfall.

Speaking to the Daily Star, a spokesperson for the Met Office said: "The definition of a white Christmas most widely used is for a single snowflake to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25 December. Snow falls ‘somewhere’ in the UK for more Christmas days than not.

"But widespread snow falling, and lying on the ground is rather more infrequent. For widespread and substantial snow on the ground on Christmas Day we have to go back to 2010.

"There is often a fine line between who sees snow and who sees rain. Sometimes just a fraction of a degree Celsius change in temperature can make the difference between rain or snow falling, making forecasting snow weeks in advance extremely difficult."

To figure whether there has been snowfall or not the weather body looks at a series of locations across the country, from Aberdeen F.C.'s Pittodrie stadium to Coronation Street in Manchester. Buckingham Palace is also used as a marker along with Edinburgh Castle and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

According to the Met Office, the last White Christmas in the UK was "technically 2022" though there were no reports of snow lying on the ground. Instead, it is judged on reports of "snow falling at any station" recorded by the government agency.

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