A White Christmas for Philly This Year?
At this time of year, who isn’t dreaming (as the song goes) of a white Christmas? Even my relatives down in sunny Florida, where it is forecast right now to be 80+ degrees on Christmas Day, are jealous of us folks who actually get cold weather for the holidays. There’s something about snow and Christmas that just seem to go hand in hand. When you look at 90 percent of Christmas cards, do you see an image of a festive home lit with decorations and a palm tree in the front yard? No, that house is glowy from within by the light of a fireplace puffing smoke out of the chimney, all surrounded by pristine banks of white fluff. Snow IS Christmas, guys.
Will Philadelphia get a white Christmas this year? It looks like it could happen!
It looks like Philadelphia might just get a white Christmas this year! Historically, there is only an 8 percent chance of there being snow on the ground on December 25th, but we have a few things going in our favor this year. According to NBC10, as of December 15 we have nearly four times our average snow for the entire month. It’s currently projected that temps will stay chilly and that even more snow could be on the way next week. Of course, the paths of arctic winds can change direction and instead dump snow on lucky New York or Baltimore. From NBC10: “That said, take a look at the European forecast model track for late next week. It is considered the gold standard of forecast models and it forms a large winter storm deep in the heart of Texas late next week, That tracks from Dallas to New York creating a travel nightmare for many people between Thursday and Christmas Eve. If this storm develops and the track pans out, we may see snow or a rain snow mix here in Philadelphia.”
For the record, there hasn’t been a white Christmas in Philly since 2007, when eight inches remained on the ground from a snowstorm earlier in the week. Before that, it was a paltry 1.5 inches in 2001, and before that, it was 1948! In the past 150 years, there has only been more than an inch of snow on the ground on Christmas Day. But it looks like 2017 might be our lucky year, folks. In the meantime, keep singing those carols and dreamin’.
