Is there going to be a white Christmas this year in Iceland?

The Icelandic Met Office has forecasted a white Christmas across Iceland this year. Snowfall is expected on December 23rd in West Iceland and on Christmas Eve in the north of the country. Those in Southeast Iceland should however expected a “red Christmas” – the Icelandic term for a Christmas without snow.

Until the 23rd, wind and rainstorms are expected across the country.

On the Icelandic Met Office’s website, readers can see records of Christmas snowfall in Reykjavík stretching back to 1921. According to the site, Reykjavík had 43 white Christmases between 1921 and 2015. Snowfall measured highest in 1982 at 29 cm (11 in).

Descriptions of Christmas weather have been found in Icelandic newspapers as far back as 1875. Tíminnnewspaper wrote the following about Christmas Day, 1920: “The most beautiful Christmas weather of all Christmas days, mild frost, still, and full moon, and the weather has not been so beautiful on Christmas in many years.”