White Christmas
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A white Christmas, to most people in the Northern Hemisphere, refers to snowy weather on Christmas Day, a phenomenon which is far more common in some countries than in others. For example, in many parts of the USA, snow is seldom experienced at Christmas except in the mountains; but most parts of Canada except for the British Columbia coast and southern interior valleys, southern Alberta, southern Ontario and parts of the Maritimes stand an excellent chance of experiencing a white Christmas. The same goes for the countries in northern Europe, such as ones in Scandinavia, the Baltic States, northern Russia, Belarus. Due to oceanic climate and such, the further west a country is in Europe, the lower the probability that it will have a white Christmas (e.g., in southern France it is very rare, while in Bucharest, Romania, which is at a similar latitude, a white Christmas is much more likely).
In the United Kingdom, white Christmases were more common in the 18th and 19th centuries. In modern times a Christmas is officially considered "white", especially by bookmakers, if a single snow flake is observed falling in the 24 hours of 25th December [1], meaning it can officially be declared a "White Christmas" with no perceivable quantity of snow. This is in contrast to other countries which usually require a specified quantity of settled snow.
Some of the least-likely white Christmases that have happened include the 2004 Christmas Eve Snowstorm, which brought the first white Christmas in 50 years to New Orleans and caused the first ever white Christmas to Houston, Texas. The 2004 storm also brought the first measurable snow of any kind since 1895 to Brownsville, Texas, and its twin city of Matamoros, Mexico. The Florida winter storm of 1989 also occurred immediately before Christmas.
[edit] White Christmases in Canada
The Meteorological Service of Canada compiled a list of the probability of a White Christmas in selected Canadian cities:
| City | Probability |
| Vancouver | 11% |
| Calgary | 59% |
| Edmonton | 88% |
| Saskatoon | 98% |
| Regina | 91% |
| Winnipeg | 98% |
| Windsor | 41% |
| Toronto | 57% |
| Ottawa | 83% |
| Montreal | 80% |
| Quebec City | 100% |
| Halifax | 59% |
| St. John's | 65% |
| Whitehorse | 100% |
| Yellowknife | 100% |
Reference: http://www.msc-smc.ec.gc.ca/media/xmas/prob_e.html
[edit] White Christmases in the United States
According to the National Climatic Data Center, basing numbers upon 1961-1990 data and stations with at least 25 years of data, the probability of a White Christmas (one inch of snow on the ground) at selected cities is as follows:
Reference: http://ols.nndc.noaa.gov/plolstore/plsql/olstore.prodspecific?prodnum=C00493-PUB-A0001
[edit] External links
Are you dreaming of a white Christmas?
