ST. LOUIS – Christmas Day is less than two weeks away. A “White Christmas” gives people the opportunity to ring in the holiday with snow. It marks the ultimate holiday spectacle for some, but it’s not always guaranteed.
To truly experience a White Christmas, there needs to be at least one inch of measurable snow on the ground by 6 a.m. on Christmas Day, according to the National Weather Service.
St. Louis delivered with a White Christmas charm last year, but the odds of a repeat aren’t looking so strong.
The FOX 2 weather team’s latest long-range outlook projects above-average temperatures for much of the United States over the next 8 to 14 days. The normal average high for mid-December in St. Louis is around 43 degrees.
A potentially prolonged situation with above-freezing temperatures, paired with minimal chances of precipitation in the near future, make it seemingly unlikely for measurable snow by Christmas morning.
Right now, the FOX 2 weather models project around a 13% chance of a White Christmas this year and a 20% chance of some snow (but less than an inch) on Christmas Day. The National Weather Service says the odds of a White Christmas in St. Louis are generally around 22%.
NWS adds that there have been 23 instances of its classification of a “White Christmas” in St. Louis since it started measuring such trends in 1893.