How likely is a 'white Easter'?

How likely is a 'white Easter'?Image source, Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesBySimon King and Sarah Keith-LucasLead Weather PresentersPublished3 minutes agoCommentsHave you heard that snow at Easter is just as common as it is at Christmas?"Dreaming of a white Easter" does not quite have the same ring to it as the Bing Crosby classic. Although we do not have quite as many white Easters as white Christmases, the chances are not too dissimilar.However, it is not an easy comparison to make.As the date of Easter changes each year, we have to look back on a range of historical data from different dates, to compare with 25 December. Add to this that the Met Office does not routinely monitor white Easters in the same way as white Christmases (where a single flake of snow needs to be reported as falling at one of their weather stations during the 24 hours of Christmas Day). Easter - a movable feastEaster is always on the first Sunday after the first full Moon that follows the spring equinox. This can be as early as 22 March, or as late as 25 April. Since 1960, Easter has been in March for only 23% of the years.According to the Met Office, over the past 30 years, we have seen 19 white Christmases compared with just seven white Easter Sundays.If we take the average of number of days where snow falls in a month, March is actually snowier than December. Image caption, The Met Office has now stopped generating the long term average number of days of snowfall a month, so average data since 2010 is not included in the above table.Using the 1981-2010 average of number of days where snow falls in a month, March sees 4.2 snow days whilst there are just 3.9 days on average in December.The majority of Easter Days occur in April, when the chance of snowfall drops to just 2.3 days.Taking that into account we can say that white Christmases and white Easters are about as frequent as each other when Easter is in March. When snow does fall, it may be more inclined to settled during...