More towns and cities across the United States are expected to experience a white Christmas this year compared to 2023, AccuWeather long-range experts say.
“There’s hope for a white Christmas in more places this year, compared to last year,” AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Expert Paul Pastelok said in a release.
To officially be considered a white Christmas for the record books, one inch of snow or more must be on the ground on Christmas morning.
The turbulent weather pattern that has brought snow to parts of the Northeast could deliver another blast of snow and rain to parts of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley just before the holidays.
“There will be a lot of temperature ups and downs along the East Coast ahead of the holidays,” Pastelok said. “Things look good for the few towns and cities around the Great Lakes that have been buried in feet of lake-effect snow this month, including Erie, Pennsylvania, which has had its snowiest start to winter on record.”
Last year, snow was absent from the holidays across much of the country, except for a few lucky locations in the Northeast, the West and northern Plains.
Records show that on Christmas morning, 2023, only 16.7 percent of the United States had an inch or more of snow on the ground. The top years for a white Christmas in recent history include 2022 and 2012 when more than half of the country experienced one.