This article is about the weather phenomenon. For the Irving Berlin song, see White Christmas (song). For the Bing Crosby/Danny Kaye movie, see White Christmas (film).

A white Christmas, to most people in the Northern Hemisphere, refers to snowy weather on Christmas Day, a phenomenon which is far more common in some countries than in others. For example, in many parts of the USA, snow is seldom experienced at Christmas except in the mountains; but most parts of Canada except for southern British Columbia, southern Alberta, southern Ontario and parts of the Maritimes stand an excellent chance of experiencing a white Christmas. The same goes for the countries in northern Europe, such as ones in Scandinavia, the Baltic States, northern Russia, Belarus. Due to oceanic climate and such, the further west a country is in Europe, the lower the probability that it will have a white Christmas (e.g., in southern France it is very rare, while in Bucharest, Romania, which is at a similar latitude, a white Christmas is much more likely).

Some of the least-likely white Christmases that have happened include the 2004 Christmas Eve Snowstorm, which brought the first white Christmas to New Orleans in half a century, and the first ever to Houston, Texas. Exactly 50 years before in 1954, that city had the largest-ever snowfall in its history, also on Christmas. The 2004 storm also brought the first measurable snow of any kind since 1895 to Brownsville, Texas, and its twin city of Matamoros, Mexico. Many young Laredoans also saw snow for the first time in their lives during the storm. The Florida winter storm of 1989 also occurred immediately before Christmas.

White Christmases in Canada

The Meteorological Service of Canada compiled a list of the probability of a White Christmas in selected Canadian cities:

Reference: http://www.msc-smc.ec.gc.ca/media/xmas/prob_e.html

White Christmases in the United States

According to the National Climatic Data Center, basing numbers upon 1961-1990 data and stations with at least 25 years of data, the probability of a White Christmas (one inch of snow on the ground) at selected cities is as follows:

Reference: http://ols.nndc.noaa.gov/plolstore/plsql/olstore.prodspecific?prodnum=C00493-PUB-A0001

Weather | Christmas

Noel Blanc | Noël blanc