Will France have a white Christmas this year?

"Some parts of France can more or less guarantee a white Christmas, but you need to be fairly high up a mountain - an Alpine village or perhaps a high-altitude Pyrenees resort - to be sure of the white stuff. To be officially counted as a white Christmas in France there must be ' neige en plein' - snow in the lowland areas - on December 24th or 25th. The last time this happened was in 2010, 15 years ago."

"Long-term weather trends have shown that France is, overall, getting warmer rather than colder. However a trend is one thing and an individual weather event is another - France already had a cold snap this year which brought snow to large parts of the country, including lowland areas in south-west, central and northern France. So will that happen again over Christmas? It's possible, but too early to say"

"This week is predicted to be unusually mild for the time of year, with minimum temperatures of 12C to 14C in towns including Nantes, Paris, Rouen and Lille. The mornings will be especially mild, although much of the country will see rainy weather. The longer term projections suggest a December with temperature above the seasonal averages, but this does not preclude flurries of snow over Christmas. As Météo-Villes points out it is, "impossible to forecast a snow event in the lowlands more than a few days in advance. "It's generally a local phenomenon that rarely lasts"."

Most of France rarely sees a white Christmas; reliable snow is generally confined to high-altitude Alpine villages and Pyrenees resorts. An official white Christmas requires 'neige en plein' in lowland areas on December 24th or 25th; the last such occurrence was in 2010. Long-term trends show France is getting warmer overall, though individual cold snaps can still bring lowland snow. Short-range forecasting beyond a week is limited, and near-term forecasts predict unusually mild and rainy conditions in many towns. Longer-term projections lean warmer, but isolated flurries at Christmas remain possible and are hard to predict in advance.

Read at The Local France