By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist
December 22,2014; 9:02PM,EST
While prospects for a white Christmas are grim along the I-95 corridor, many communities from the Great Lakes to the Rockies should be able enjoy a snowy scene for the holiday.
Travel nightmares await millions through Christmas Eve as a complex winter storm crosses the nation with another storm to push into the Northwest and Rockies Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
For those without travel plans, children and the young at heart, the benefit of the storms from the Great Lakes to the Rockies will be to produce a blanket of snow just in time for Christmas.
White Christmas Chances Grim for I-95, Diminishing for New England
Snow is currently covering the ground across most of northern New England. However, the potent storm set to sweep through Christmas Eve and the morning of Christmas threatens to greatly diminish or totally erase this snowpack.
The Northeast will remain on the warm side of the storm, leading to a soaking windswept rain event and soaring temperatures.
What Qualifies as a White Christmas to You?
Colder air will blast back across the Northeast on Christmas Day, returning snow showers to places downwind of the Great Lakes and eventually back to the mountains of northern New England.
Due to the rain and the fact the snow showers will not press that far to the south and east, the chances for a white Christmas along the I-95 corridor from Portland to Boston to New York City to Washington, D.C. are grim.
Storm to Return Snow to Great Lakes in Time for Christmas
The same storm diminishing white Christmas chances in the Northeast will do the opposite across the Great Lakes.
As the storm strengthens, a band of wind-driven snow will develop across the western/central Great Lakes on Christmas Eve and will could bring a heavy accumulation.
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The exact track of the storm will determine if the storm targets the corridor from Chicago to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Marquette, Michigan, or the zone from Toledo, Ohio, to Detroit, Saginaw and Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan.
Places around the Great Lakes that miss out on the main snow band may still have an opportunity for a white Christmas as snow showers and lake-effect snow fly in the storm's wake on Christmas Day.
Central Plains: Battle Zone Between Warmer Air, Fresh Snow
The probability of a white Christmas across the central Plains will depend on whether the current snowpack can survive rising temperatures and if a storm will arrive quick enough to return fresh snow for Christmas.
Parts of Kansas and Missouri that started the weekend with snow on the ground will see that snow melt away prior to Christmas.
Farther to the north, temperatures will remain cold enough for most of the snow across the northern Plains to last through Christmas Day.
Fresh Snow for the Cascades, Rockies
The mountains of the Northwest and Rockies are guaranteed to have a white Christmas due to snow already on the ground and what is to fall from a pair of storms.
Heavy snow is in the offing for Jackson, Wyoming and Billings, Montana.
The storm due to arrive Christmas Eve and Christmas Day should spread snow east of the mountains in Montana and Wyoming, whitening Miles City, Montana, and Casper, Wyoming.
Across the lower elevations of the interior Northwest and northern Great Basin, the storm's rain could end as a couple of snow showers with some communities possibly lucky enough to receive a covering of snow. This includes Pocatello, Idaho, and Salt Lake City, Utah.
If the storm tracks far enough to the south, Elko and Reno, Nevada, could join that list as fresh snow piles up on the Sierra.
Nothing but plain rain is in store for the West's I-5 corridor.
Thumbnail image provided by Design Pics/Thinkstock Photos.
On Social Media
- Andrew Crossett · Top CommenterMy town is still in the 50-75% band even though the forecast calls for 55 degrees (record high) on Christmas Eve and torrential rain. And then 40 degrees and "flurries" on Christmas Day.
For this map to be right, the forecast will have to be drastically wrong.
Last year's winter, which so many people are calling horrible, was pretty much exactly like the winters I remember from my childhood in the 70's. it was one last reminder of the way things used to be.
William Smith · Top Commenter · Inventory at Rem BarHistorically we here in the New York area only have,on average, a 25% chance for a white Xmas every year,despite being so far to the north.I can only count on one hand the # of white Xmases around here since I was a little tyke back in the early 1980's,though it depends on your definition of a white Xmas,of course.I think for us this historic probability has to do with the fact that,for us to get snow here, conditions have to be just favorable enough ie cold air being in place,and a coastal Low forming and riding up the coast at just the right time.Compared to the snow-belts along the Great Lakes where just having cold air going over warm lake water is enough to produce a blizzard.Usually,we don't get enough cold air for a long enough time combined with a coastal low coming up the coast until January or February around here.Not many in mid-to-late December, historically speaking.
Emjay AicheMadison WI is in the 50-75% range, while there is absolutely zero snow in the forecast between now and Christmas. How can this site be so wrong so often and still use "accu" in the title?
Deborah Collier Lawrence · Northwood University Texas CampusNot sure how you're forecasting a White Christmas in Northern New York with 50 degrees and rain on Wednesday and 40 degrees on Christmas Day.
Grant McGuire · Top Commenter · Western Connecticut State UniversityIn the Northeast, we had a white Thanksgiving, so the green Christmas is just Nature balancing things out.- Cory Morrison · Follow · Top Commenter · Oakville, OntarioI don't mind a Green Christmas ONE BIT this year. At least 2014 for once has some sort of warm characteristic of the year (Mild/wet/green Christmas).
I'd take the high of 4C (39F) which is several degrees above average this time of year in my area, with dry conditions/partly cloudy skies forecasted for tomorrow over the ice storm my area got hammered with this time last year.
Chris Broomfield · Port Hope, Ontariowhat a diff from last winter back to back ice storms to big wind rain event on the same day.ok plese tell me this is not going be winter 2012 2013 in my area mosquitoes still flying and flys not good signal.Ohh the horses r eating more that must be a signal winter coming unless that was from nov.
Ellen Sawyer Palmer · Top Commenter · Detroit, MichiganYou guys have two simultaneous forecasts for detroit predicting different weather for xmas.- Cory Morrison · Follow · Top Commenter · Oakville, OntarioInteresting. The GTA counts as the Great Lakes yet the rain isn't supposed to change to snow until late on Christmas Day. Yup, a white Christmas appears unlikely at this point there. A mild spell is what we deserve after last year's horrid winter.
- Chris Broomfield · Port Hope, Ontariowhat's the diff from this weather pattern than 7677 in a weak el nino.
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