White Christmas Calculator

Will it snow for Christmas?- that is the yearly question that many of us ask with hope. White Christmas calculator can tell you if your every year dream of a white Christmas might come true in 2022.

Stop wondering about whether the snowy carpet will cover your region on the 25th of December! Choose your city from the list, and see the probability of having snow this year and what snow depth you can expect based on historical data. Moreover, you can check the probability of snowfall and how big it might be. The year of the last white Christmas is also available in many locations.

If you want to improve your chances of having a white Christmas experience, we will show you which city you should choose as your destination. Finally, we will let you know whether you will be able to build an igloo! The white Christmas calculator provides data for 200 places across the USA and Canada. Put on the tree lights, decorate the house, prepare delicacies and look forward to spending a marvelous white Christmas with your friends and family!

If you can't wait for Christmas like us, join the countdown of days until Christmas with the Omni Team!

Probably most of us have hummed that Bing Crosby's song lyrics with the hope of having snow on Christmas day. But why is snow so important for us at Christmas time? For sure, there is something special when snow covers the ground on Christmas Eve. It is all about the unique Christmas atmosphere. With snow, we can feel it better, and the world becomes more magical with the white cover on the ground. We can have lots of fun playing with it, too! It's a great thing to build a snowman in front of the house with our children or take part in a snow battle with our nephews.

Across the U.S., there are a lot of places where snow never comes up and many where we can often count on white Christmas. But what if you didn't have to only wait for it with great hope? Maybe it is hard to believe, but there is a number of locations in the United States where citizens are almost always guaranteed white Christmas. Below, we present a list of 10 cities (based on NOAA's 30-year weather data) with over 90% historical probability of seeing snow on the 25th of December:

• Bettles (Alaska);
• Aspen (Colorado);
• Hayden (Colorado);
• Rangeley (Maine);
• Fort Kent (Maine);
• Marquette (Michigan);
• Duluth (Minnesota);
• International Falls (Minnesota); and
• Newcomb (New York).
• West Burke (Vermont)

Although snow tends to lie on the ground much longer in the North than in the USA, Canadian cities also have various chances of having a white Christmas. Vancouver lies on the coast of the Pacific Ocean and has the least chance of having snow on the ground on the 25th of December. The probability is only 10%. It means, statistically speaking, that the citizens of Vancouver can enjoy white Christmas only once every ten years. It's quite surprising. Isn't it? Luckily, the rest of the country makes up for it. This is the list of cities that have practically a 100% chance (yes, you read that well) of having white Christmas this year:

• Iqaluit;
• Kenora;
• Whitehorse;
• Winnipeg; and
• Yellowknife.

Brandon, Goose Bay, Timmins, and Thunder Bay are catching up with their 95%. Overall, cities in Canada have a 68% chance of waking up in a white world on Christmas Day. It has to feel wonderful to be Canadian on Christmas 😊.

We based our white Christmas calculator on NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data of climate normals for years 1981-2020. The statistics result from three-decade averages of several climatological measurements at approximately 9,800 stations operated by NOAA’s National Weather Service in the USA. For Canada, we based it on data from Environment and Climate Change Canada. They show the historical probability of at least 1-inch snow cover and the percentage chances for snowfall on the 25th of December. Remember that the actual conditions may vary widely from these probabilities because of present weather patterns. These probabilities are helpful as a guide only to show where snow on the ground is more probable. If you want the most recent weather predictions, check your local forecast a few days before Christmas day.

The Historical Probability of a White Christmas map above shows the climatological probability of at least 1 inch of snow being on the ground on Christmas Day across the United States. Dark gray color marks places where the probability is less than 10 percent, and the white color shows probabilities greater than 90 percent. Check the interactive version of the Historical Probability of a White Christmas map.

With the white Christmas calculator, you can find out the probability that Christmas in your home city will be white this year. Predictions are available for over 200 of the most populated cities across the United States and Canada. When you choose your city, 4 numbers will be presented:

❄️Probability of snow - percentage chances for the 25th of December that at least 1 inch of snow will be on the ground in the particular town.

❄️Typical snow depth - the median value of snow depth over 30 years of observation. You can consider this as a typical depth of snow.

❄️Probability of snowfall - percentage probability that snowfall will occur during Christmas day.

❄️Typical snowfall - the median value of snowfalls over 30 years of observation. You can consider this as a typical amount of snow that falls on the 25th of December.

Unfortunately, the last two values are unavailable to citizens of Canada due to a lack of data.

If seeing snow on Christmas morning (or going skiing right after the family dinner) is your number one priority, this calculator is a tool just for you! On top of the result, it suggests up to four different destinations, in which the probability of having a white Christmas is much higher than in your home town (or, to be exact, at least 20% higher).

As an addition, our white Christmas calculator will tell you if your city will have enough snow to build an igloo and in which year the last white Christmas occurred (this function is not available for some cities).

Let's assume I'm spending Christmas in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. I hope I will be able to build a snowman on Christmas day. To check how probable it is, I briefly examine the white Christmas calculator.

❄️ First, I choose the USA as the country.

❄️ Second, I scroll for MN on the list. That's the abbreviation of Minnesota state.

❄️ Then, I look for Minneapolis city.

❄️ Great, here it is, at the first position in this state.

❄️ Now, check the numbers... Hurray! I can expect white Christmas this year!

❄️ Probability of snow = 74% That's a lot, but look at the typical snow depth.

❄️ Typical snow depth = 5 in It is enough to build a snowman, for sure. Unfortunately, it's not enough if you would like to build an igloo... And how about a snowfall?

❄️ Probability of snowfall = 30%, Typical snowfall = 0.6 in. Nice, I have about a 1/3 chance for a slight snowfall in Minneapolis. I have stopped dreaming of the white Christmas... Now, I'm expecting it!

❄️ If I would like a higher chance of having a snowy Christmas, I should head for Anchorage. Although very distant, it has a 22% higher chance of a white Christmas.

Do you know the song “Last Christmas” by Wham? It is yet another song associated with the magical atmosphere of Christmas time. George Michael, the leader of Wham, repeatedly sings: “Last Christmas I gave you my heart…”. In fact, the weather gave us in 2017 all of its heart and even more. Maybe you have forgotten, but on Christmas morning of 2017, we were witnesses to a really uncommon weather phenomenon. Thanks to some last-minute snow storms, a large portion of 48 lower states had at least a one-inch deep snow layer on the ground, thus meeting the definition of meteorological white Christmas (yes, we also didn't know that there is one). Why was it strange? Well, it is enough to say that Seattle noted only its sixth white Christmas since the 1890s. In the same way, the citizens of Portland, Oregon, could celebrate their sixth white Christmas in 133 years.

It was the most widespread Christmas snow cover in the 48 lower states in five years, and the fifth most widespread in the already mentioned, 15-year database from NOAA-NOHRSC. As you may have already noticed by using our calculator – it is not so likely to have a white Christmas. This makes the 25th of December 2017 even more unbelievable. What do you think - how will it be this year? Will we get surprised again? It would be nice to start Christmas morning by having fun with some sleds!

We continue our Christmas songs tour with the song “Cold December Night” by Michael Bubble. Have you ever wondered how cold it could be in your city on Christmas night? And no, we do not talk here about the cold hearts of your neighbors! There is a list of the coldest temperature records on Christmas night, and it appears that even in the south, temperatures can go below zero!

Hopefully, this year's Christmas, we will not freeze to death. But if it gets freezing, we wish you that someone will warm and “kiss you on this cold December night…” as Michael Bubble sang. Remember, cold temperature promotes hugging. 😉

Let's have some fun at the end! Our white Christmas calculator will tell you the probability of having a white Christmas morning and whether you can spend it building an igloo with your friends or kids. The igloo is a primitive house or shelter made of compacted snow. People inhabiting lands of today's Canada and Greenland are thought to have made the first one.

Because of its air pockets, snow can be used as a very effective insulator. It keeps the temperature high inside the igloo. Even in the presence of freezing temperature outside (as low as – 49 °F), the energy from the human body can sustain the temperature in the range from 19 °F to 61 °F inside this snow structure. To build an igloo, the layer of snow on the ground has to be over 10 inches deep. If it is not, you will not be able to make blocks of sufficient thickness out of it. You should also remember to use the denser snow from a deeper layer, not the powder on the surface. Our calculator will tell whether you should reserve some time for a small architectural project on Christmas morning!