17 hours Ago By Karen Mansfield
If you’re hoping for a “Winter Wonderland” on Christmas Day in Southwestern Pennsylvania (yes, it’s a reference to Canonsburg native Perry Como’s classic Christmas song), you’re probably going to be disappointed on Dec. 25. Meteorologists say snow likely won’t fall on the holiday.
“It’s looking like temperatures may not be quite cold enough to have a white Christmas,” said Matt Brudy, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service Pittsburgh. “Tuesday going into Wednesday, Christmas Day, we have a 40% chance of precipitation, but it depends on how cold the temperatures get, and the pattern is not overly favorable for us to get enough snow for a white Christmas.” The National Weather Service defines a white Christmas as one where there is at least 1 inch of snow on the ground at 7 a.
m. Christmas Day. On Tuesday, highs are expected to reach 40 degrees, and those warmer temperatures are expected to extend into Wednesday.
“We can get a better idea the closer we get, and see how it pans out. There’s a chance (of snow), but it’s not high,” said Brudy. Historically, the Pittsburgh area has a 10% chance of having a white Christmas.
In the last 10 years, the region has only had two white Christmases – in 2020, when a record 5.1 inches of snow fell, and in 2017, when 1.4 inches of snow was recorded.
“We just don’t get quite as cold in the winter as we have in the past,” said Brudy. The longest stretch of white Christmases was a five-year period from 1959 through1963 – which, incidentally, happened after the longest stretch of Christmas Days without snow, an eight-year span from 1951 through 1958. The last white Christmas in Pittsburgh occurred in 2022, when the high temperature reached only 13 degrees.
So, while you probably won’t have a white Christmas, the wish is that it’s still merry and bright. INFO BOX: Pittsburgh Christmas climatology trivia Hottest Christmas: 1895, 67 degrees Coldest Christmas: 1983, 12 degrees below zero Snowiest Christmas: 2020, 5.1 inches Wettest Christmas: 1944, 1.
07 inches of rain Deepest snow depth measured: 1963, 7 inches.
