What Are The Chances Of A White Christmas In 2020?

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Historically, Pittsburgh does not fare well in the White Christmas category.

First, we need to define a White Christmas, so we're all on the same page.

A technical White Christmas is 1" of new snow on Christmas.

Now we know what a White Christmas is, but how often does Pittsburgh see them?

The short answer: not very often at all.

Statistically, Pittsburgh has a White Christmas 17% of the time. That's it.

The last time we had a White Christmas, was in 2017. While that White Christmas was not too long ago, the White Christmas before that was in 2002.

A 15 year White Christmas drought!

While the chances of a technical White Christmas are very low, historically, having snow on the ground from previous snowmaking systems are better.

That occurs 38% of the time, historically.

This year, early indications are that our White Christmas chances are going up.

A frontal system is currently timing into the region. On the current track, the rain will change to snow on Christmas Eve day, and VERY cold air will keep some lake effect in the forecast on Christmas day.

The actual meteorological ingredients have not materialized, and are not in place to time this system exactly.

These are just model projections for a week from now, so as the ingredients become present, the timing and details will become more clear.

That said, it looks like this year's chances are better than 17%!