What are the chances of a White Christmas in NYC this year?
Photo via Marianne O’Leary on Flickr
The chance of getting a White Christmas in New York City this year is sadly unlikely, but not impossible. The team behind the Omni Calculator Project created an online tool that provides the probability of snowfall in major cities across the United States as well as the closest White Christmas–meaning at least one inch of snowfall on Dec. 25–near that city. While the White Christmas Calculator says NYC has a roughly 12 percent chance of seeing snow next Tuesday, there are four nearby cities with a nearly 50 percent chance of enjoying some flurries.
The last time it snowed at least one inch on Christmas in NYC was in 2009. It comes as no surprise the odds are much better north of the city and Upstate. According to Omni, the nearest cities with a higher chance of a White Christmas include Albany, Worcester, Lowell, and Syracuse.
The team used data based on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s climate normals, which covers three decades of climatological measurements at more than 9,000 of their weather service stations in the U.S. Explore the interactive map from NOAA here.
See the results for New York, and other cities, below:
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As a lifelong New Yorker, I always hold out a little hope for a snowy Christmas, even though I know the odds are usually against us. Reading that we only have a 12 percent chance this year makes me a bit nostalgic for 2009, the last time we got that magical inch. It’s funny how a single snowflake can transform the whole city into a winter wonderland, even if it’s just for a day. For those of us who love to capture those rare, fleeting moments, having a tool to edit the text right on a screenshot is a game-changer. I’ve been using PicText – Screenshot Editor to add little notes to my weather app screenshots, and it makes sharing the forecast with friends so much more fun.
I grew up in the suburbs north of the city, and I still remember the Christmas of 2009 when we actually got a real snow cover—it felt magical. Reading that NYC only has about a 12 percent chance this year makes me a little nostalgic, but it's fun to see the calculator break down the odds for nearby towns. If you're like me and love tinkering with numbers and probabilities, you might also enjoy a different kind of puzzle—figuring out a Rubik's cube. When I finally got stuck on my nephew's cube last holiday, I found a 3×3 cube solver online that walked me through it step by step. It's a nice way to keep the brain busy while you wait for the snow to fall.