Will we have a white Christmas? It's an age-old question
that occurs to almost everyone during the holiday season. This report,
created by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), contains maps and
tables showing the percent probabilities for a snow depth of at least 1
inch on Christmas morning, as well as the probabilities for a depth of
at least 5 inches and 10 inches. The "First Order" Summary of Day Dataset
for the period of 1961-1990 was used to compute these statistics. Only
stations with at least 25 years of data were used and the '61-'90 period
was chosen to coincide with the standard period for computing climatological
normals.
Generally, the greatest probabilities lie where they
would be expected-- over the northern U.S. and in mountainous areas. In
defining a 'white Christmas' as having a snow depth of at least 1 inch,
the chances are 60% or better over an area including much of the northern
Rockies, the northern Great Plains, the Great Lakes area, and most of New
England. The chances are less than 20% over most of the southern third
of the country excluding the Rockies, along with the Pacific coast.
Table 1 presents city-by-city probabilities for at
least 1, 5, and 10- inch depths on Christmas morning.
| Table 1
Probability of snow depth on Christmas Day
greater than or equal to values (in inches)
shown at top of column |
 |
|
1 Inch |
5 Inches |
6 Inches |
| MAINE |
|
|
|
| AUGUSTA |
90% |
52% |
21% |
| BRUNSWICK |
80% |
40% |
17% |
| Caribou |
97% |
77% |
57% |
| Houlton |
96% |
74% |
52% |
| Portland |
83% |
43% |
13% |
|
|
|
|
| NEW HAMPSHIRE |
|
|
|
| Concord |
87% |
57% |
7% |
| Lebanon |
85% |
70% |
30% |
| Mount Washington |
93% |
63% |
27% |
|
|
click on images below to see a larger version...
|
created
2/01
by E. Schwibs |
