Who doesn’t associate Christmas with snowfall and the kind of weather that makes you bundle in front of a cheery fire? As I write this, our Southern California “cold snap” gives us daytime temps in the sixties and the sun is shining brightly.  Except for mountain areas, we won’t have a white Christmas.

From Wikipedia Commons

But a snowy Christmas setting seemed imperative for my story, Rosalyn’s Ring. The heroine sets out in a coach on a snowy Christmas eve to rescue a young woman. Though the setting and action is fictional, it is not far-fetched. Many of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century winters were severe. In 1816, England experienced what became known as “the year without summer”, with a late spring snowfall and a severe winter following.

From netweather.tv’s posting on The History of British Winters:

A volcanic eruption (Tambora: East Indies) disrupted wind patterns and temperatures greatly, affecting the track of depressions, which tracked further South than usual, and making the UK very cold and wet for the summer and beyond. In September the Thames had frozen! Snow drifts remained on hills until late July!

If you are traveling on this Christmas eve, I wish you a safe journey, and wherever you are, may you have a warm and happy Christmas!