County Derry records first technical white Christmas in five years

County Derry recorded its first technical white Christmas in five years according to the Met Office.

The weather station at Lough Fea recorded the falling of sleet at around 5pm on Christmas Day.

If just a single flake of sleet or snow is recorded at one of the official Met Office a white Christmas is declared.

Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said the recording may not line up with people’s

"Officially it was a white Christmas but, of course, a lot of people think of those perfect deep-snow Christmas card scenes and actually we didn't really see any snow settle at lower levels yesterday.

"What we define a white Christmas as is just a few snowflakes falling, even if it's mixed with rain, so it's a technical white Christmas but, for most places, particularly in England and Wales, it was too mild.

"Most of the day was too mild for snow and the showers were falling for rain, but in the evening it got colder and we started to see those showers turn to sleet and then to snow," he said.

The white Christmas was also recorded in County Armagh when the weather station at Glenanne picked up heavy sleet around 7pm.

The North's last official white Christmas recording was at Lough Navar Forest, County Fermanagh, in 2017.

Last Christmas, 6% of Met Office stations in Ireland and the UK recorded snowfall, but just 1% had snow lying on the ground. Around 11% of Met stations recorded snow falling in 2017.

However, forecasters have to go back to 2010 to find a Christmas where people would remember waking up to snow on the ground.