Wolds World: White Christmas a rare sight

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, Just like the ones I used to know”
Nettleton Hill near CaistorNettleton Hill near Caistor
Nettleton Hill near Caistor

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, Just like the ones I used to know”

So sang the American crooner Bing Crosby in the 1950s, but of course he was singing from an American perspective.

In parts of North America a white Christmas is odds on, but it is not so in the UK.

Snowy trees at South KelseySnowy trees at South Kelsey
Snowy trees at South Kelsey

In truth, such an event is very rare, for there has been widespread snow on the ground on Christmas Day only four times in the past 51 years.

Prospects of the rate improving are not good, for as the climate grows warmer an obvious effect is the greater number of milder winters.

In the Wolds our best snow memories are of the winter of 2010-2011.

The snow started to fall during the night of November 27, bringing an early start to winter. Through December and into January, the drifts in Caistor remained.

The snow banks, which began life during the blizzards of November 30 to December 2, kept getting ‘topped up’ with fresh falls.

Some of the high roads of the Wolds were virtually impassable for a month, including that from Nettleton to Normanby-le-Wold – the highest in Lincolnshire.

Opinions differ among the older generation in Caistor as to whether the snow in 1947 was heavier than that of 2010.

The measurement of a White Christmas, so far as the bookies are concerned, is a strange one.

Betting began in the 1970s, with the definition being that only one snowflake is needed to fall on Christmas Day on the Met Office roof, for the bookies to have to pay out.

Not that I feel sorry for them when that happens!

With more advanced electrical measurements now, local readings can be taken.

In all cases the snow does not have to settle on the ground.

If my memory serves me right, Christmas 2010 was not a white one as the snow had fallen best part of a month earlier.

By Christmas Day, the snow lying at the roadside was anything but crisp and even, more a distasteful grey by then.

Fresh snow always looks so much better, especially when the children in Caistor get their sledges out on the slopes of South Street Park.

School dinner trays are an excellent substitute.

The Met Office records show that there is a greater chance in the UK of snow falling in each of the months January, February and March than in December; the reason being that our coastal waters retain residue warmth from the previous summer still in December.

It is, of course, dependent on where you live in the UK as to how much winter snow you will get and at what altitude you live.

The Scottish Highlands have the most snowfall in the UK and some corries on the Cairngorm summits and on Ben Nevis keep their snow patches all the year round.

My daughter lived for several years in South West Cornwall and claims she never saw snow in any winter and never needed central heating.

There is even a local climate here in the Wolds, for many is the time I have woken up to snow in Caistor, only to drive down the A46 towards Cleethorpes and find it disappearing.

More often than the years of 1947 and 2010/11 in the UK, snow tends to be far more often a case of here today and gone tomorrow!

Incidentally, news of yet another Christmas cancellation reached me this week.

Sheep on Nettleton Hill are not celebrating the Christian Festival this year but are having a ‘Baa’-Mitzvah instead!

Thank you for reading this monthly column through this remarkable and for many dreadful year.

I wrote in April ‘Keep Safe, Sane and Sanitised.

I like many have struggled particularly to keep sane, but it was forever thus!

I don’t think I would have expected to be saying the same as 2020 -the year of Covid-19 - draws to a close.

Happy Christmas and lets hope for a better new year.

Related topics: