The Strangest White Christmas in the USA

A white Christmas is expected to be on the horizon for only a small portion of the United States this year, but in recent years it has appeared in some of the most unexpected places.

December got off to a cold start for much of the country, sparking dreams of a white Christmas in normally snow-free places. However, if there isn’t snow on the ground yet, it probably won’t be before Christmas unless you’re in the far north of the country or at much higher elevations in the mountainous west.

Meteorologists call it a white Christmas when there is at least an inch of snow on the ground on Christmas morning.

Last Christmas morning saw the lightest snow cover since records began in 2003, and this year could be even less snowy. Even some of the northernmost cities, where a white Christmas is usually guaranteed, could be snow-free this year.

As you can see below, the snow cover map is sparse even in the northern United States

(​MORE: White Christmas forecast | America’s brownest Christmas in 20 years)

Here are the strangest white Christmases we’ve ever seen. LLet’s go back in history and turn things around by examining five places where snow is more unusual but once managed to keep it on the ground on Christmas morning. In some of these places, snow was a once-in-a-lifetime event, let alone in time for the holidays.

5​. Pacific Northwest (2008)

Did you know that some places further north than Minneapolis don’t often get snow?

Although the nearby Cascades receive 30 centimeters of snow, Seattle averages only 15 to 17 centimeters per year. This is because a typical Pacific storm pumps relatively warm, moist air into western Washington.

But in late December 2008, cold air flowed south from Canada and held the Pacific Northwest for nearly two weeks. Nearly 14 inches of snow fell in Seattle during this stretch, leaving 4 inches on the ground on Christmas morning, with light snow falling over the holiday.

Portland, Oregon, had 10 inches of snow on Christmas, by far the record for the holiday, in a city where the chance of getting just an inch of snow on Christmas has historically been just 4% .

Despite the romance of a rare white Christmas here, this long, cold, snowy stretch was very unsettling. Chains were required for all vehicles in the Portland metro, and some cars were left in snowdrifts.

Roads in Seattle remained snow-covered, rutted and muddy, sending some helpless drivers sliding downhill into other cars. Flights were canceled and passengers were stranded at Portland and Seattle-Tacoma airports.

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4. Tucson, Arizona (1987)

Snow is common in the higher elevations of the desert southwest. These include Flagstaff (elevation 7,014 feet) and Prescott (5,045 feet), Arizona.

However, snow on the valley floor is rarer.

So imagine the excitement when 3.6 inches of snow fell in Tucson, Arizona from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day 1987, the city’s only white Christmas on record. Prior to that, there had only been 14 days in the city’s history since 1894 when there was an inch of snow on the ground.

Located at approximately 9,100 feet elevation, Mt. Lemmon Ski Valley offers skiing about a 30-minute drive from downtown Tucson. But in 1987, you didn’t have to drive to see snow during this surreal, historic Christmas.

3. Blizzard, Southern Style (2009)

A photo like the one below might be something you see in the Dakotas, northern New England, or the mountains of the West during a typical snowstorm. But it was recorded in Oklahoma City.

Christmas Eve 2009 was the record snowstorm in Oklahoma City. A staggering 13.5 inches of snow, accompanied by wind gusts of over 60 miles per hour, brought the city to a standstill.

Will Rogers Airport was closed, leaving passengers and workers stranded. When the airport reopened on Christmas Day, only one of three runways had been cleared. A state of emergency has been declared in Oklahoma. Sections of Interstates 44, 40 and 35 were closed. Cars were left abandoned on Oklahoma City’s highways during heavy snowfall.

The snow even extended deep into Texas. 3 inches of snow fell in Dallas-Fort Worth, the first measurable snow on Christmas Eve. It was the Metroplex’s first white Christmas since 1926. Far northwest of Fort Worth, up to 9 inches of snow and wind gusts of up to 65 mph whipped snowdrifts up to 5 feet high and stranded motorists in Montague County.

At some point on Christmas Eve, a nearly continuous 1,200-mile strip of prairie from Texas to Canada was under a blizzard warning.

Due in part to this extensive snowstorm, 63% of the lower 48 states were covered in snow on Christmas Day 2009, the nation’s largest snowpack on the holiday since 2003.

2. Florida, Southeast Coast (1989)

In December 1989, Arctic air rushed into northern Florida, turning rain into wet snow in both Tallahassee and Jacksonville on December 22 and 23.

In Jacksonville, 1 inch of snow covered the ground on Christmas Eve, the only time an inch or more of snow was recorded there since 1893. The 1989 storm was one of only four days of measurable snow recorded in Jacksonville.

Technically it wasn’t a white Christmas. But don’t tell that to kids who’ve been riding makeshift sleds or stuck on icy city streets.

This pre-Christmas storm gave both Charleston, South Carolina (4 inches on the ground) and Savannah, Georgia (2 inches) their only white Christmases on record. Each city had snow on the ground for four days in a row from December 23rd to 26th. Imagine building a snowman on the coast of South Carolina.

More than a foot of snow fell in parts of coastal Carolina, including 15 inches in Wilmington, the largest snowstorm on record, according to weather historian Christopher Burt. Winds whipped snowdrifts up to 8 feet high in some areas of the coastal plain, Burt told Weather.com.

To top it all off, temperatures in Wilmington, North Carolina, dropped to 0 degrees on Christmas Day 1989, their historic low.

1. South Texas (2004)

The photo below looks like any other winter scene, except for the palm trees.

Not only did 1.5 inches of snow fall in Brownsville, Texas – roughly the same latitude as Miami – the first measurable snowfall since February 1895, but also on Christmas Day 2004. The National Weather Service called this coincidence of events “A historic one Premiere after more than 150 years of weather data.”

This unusual event was also a record snowstorm in Victoria, Texas (12.5 inches) and covered Corpus Christi with 4.4 inches. Generally, 1 to 3 inches of snow fell in the southern Houston suburbs, south of Interstate 10, including Pearland and Friendswood. Ten centimeters of snow covered Galveston Island and Jamaica Beach.

The satellite image of this Christmas snowpack in South Texas, once the skies are clear, remains one of the most bizarre weather images of my meteorological career.

Imagine the sheer amazement experienced by children who have never seen snow before – even at Christmas.

Jonathan Erdman is the senior meteorologist at Weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. His lifelong love of meteorology began with a close encounter with a tornado as a child in Wisconsin. He studied physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then completed his master’s degree at Colorado State University working on dual polarization radar and lightning data. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Contact him at X (formerly Twitter), Topics, Facebook And Bluesky.