Mystery: Why do we expect a white Christmas?
Use the evidence below to consider:- What the chances are of snow at Christmas.
- The images we see and stories we hear at Christmas.
- What the weather was like when Charles Dickens was young.
- What may have caused the weather to be like that.
Current probability of snow at Christmas
The current probability of snow at Christmas across Europe. ©Map created by Haayoaie/Reddit
“…and they stood in the city streets on Christmas morning, where (for the weather was severe) the people made a rough, but brisk and not unpleasant kind of music in scraping the snow from the pavement in front of their dwellings, and from the tops of their houses, whence it was mad delight to the boys to see it come plumping down into the road below, and splitting into artificial little snow-storms.” From Dickens “A Christmas Carol”
This graph shows the total amount of volcanic material in the upper atmosphere. This sort of material can cool the climate. 
