Shouldn't Santa put away the skates on his sleigh and replace them with wheels? It is that long gone are the days when France shivered under a large white coat at the time of the end of the year celebrations. Who remembers Christmas in 1962 when it snowed on many cities in the southern half such as Bordeaux, Toulouse, Clermont-Ferrand and even Marseille where 32 cm of powder fell on the 24th during the coldest Christmas of the century.
According to Météo France, these flaky Christmases are increasingly rare. "Between 1950 and 2022, the presence of snow on the ground at Christmas was observed on average about ten times from the North-East to the Massif Central, much more rarely over the western half of the country with two to four occurrences and exceptionally over regions with a Mediterranean climate," the forecasters explain.
Less and less snow, not just at Christmas
"With climate change, episodes of snow in the plains have been much less frequent since the 1980s, as has the duration of snow cover on the massifs," continues the national climatology service. Compared to the previous 1981-2010 normals, the average annual number of snow days (with snow observation) decreased by about 2 days in the plains in Bourges, Caen, Roissy, Rouen, Lyon and by 3 to 4 days in Besançon or Basel-Mulhouse.
And if we go back even further in time, since the end of the 1960s (normal 1961-1990), the decrease is a little more marked with 6 fewer days in Rouen. "Some regions were accustomed to snow in winter such as Nancy, Strasbourg or Besançon," observes Météo France. In recent years, these cities have had fewer daylight with snow on the ground. »
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Once known for its harsh winters, Besançon, for example, lost an average of eight days per year of snow on the ground between the period 1961-1990 (28 days/year) and 1991-2020 (19.7 days/year). On Wednesday in the capital of the Doubs, close to the Jura massif, it will be 9 °C, 2 °C higher than normal. "The last white Christmas in Besançon dates back to 2010," explain the meteorologists. In view of the forecasts, this Christmas 2023 will be the thirteenth Christmas in a row without snow on the ground in Besançon. Such a series of green Christmases has never happened in Besançon since 1949. »