Keep dreaming about a white Christmas for 2019
Set aside dreams of the oft-sung about 鈥淲hite Christmas.鈥�
鈥淵ou can call it a brown or green Christmas after this wet spell,鈥� said Fred McMullen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh.
In fact, this Dec. 25 will feel downright spring-like with temperatures in the mid 50s, McMullen said.
While snow on Christmas seems out of the question in the area, according to the National Weather Service, it鈥檚 not necessary to actually have snowfall to declare a 鈥渨hite Christmas.鈥�
They determine it by whether there is 1 inch of snow on the ground by 7 a.m. Dec. 25. Since snow depth records started in 1949, the service has reported that 30% of them have qualified as white Christmases using that formula.
But that, too, seems unlikely, said McMullen, because the days preceding Christmas will also be above the average 40-degree high for this time of year. McMullen said a dry spell is expected to start today and continue until Christmas evening, when rain will hit.
The last time our area had an official white Christmas was 2017, when 1.4 inches hit the ground, according to the NWS.
The longest stretch of certified white Christmases went for five years, ending in 1963. That year also marked the most snow on Dec. 25, according to the NWS, with 7 inches.
Christmas Day has also brought highs and lows. In 1895, locals could鈥檝e exchanged gifts wearing shorts when the temperatures hit 67 degrees. Eighty-eight years later brought the low: -12 degrees.