Dreaming of A White Christmas |
 Dave Thurlow, Host |
Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow from the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather Notebook. You know, recently I've just kinda been dreaming about the way things used to be at Christmas. With all the good food and the deep snow and the Christmas caroling. Christmas was always so cold and snowy when I was a kid. You probably remember the same thing. I can remember the treetops in the yard glistening, and all of the neighborhood kids out there were listening for sleigh bells... for sleigh bells? - wait a second I never had a sleigh -- and it didn't really snow that much either. I must be dreaming........
Well the truth is that most of us are dreaming when it comes to the chance of having at least a little bit of snow on the ground on Christmas. Because there's just about as much chance that our Christmases will be white, as there is that we'll be roasting chestnuts by an open fire. Only two places in the country are all but assured of having at least one inch of snow, only one inch, on the ground by December 25th - International Falls, Minnesota and Fairbanks, Alaska.
Outside of central Alaska, and the northern parts of Minnesota, Michigan and Maine, snowfall in late December isn't a sure thing. Boston, Chicago and Detroit only have a 30 to 40 percent chance of having a white Christmas and New York, Kansas City and Denver only 20 percent. And what's the point at all of dreaming of a white Christmas in Miami or New Orleans? So, unless you're pretty far north, or on a mountaintop, the most likely place to see a white Christmas is in your dreams. Our show is funded by Subaru, the beauty of all wheel drive and by the National Science Foundation.