White Christmas 2017: Slim Chances For Maryland

BALTIMORE, MD — Keep dreaming if you want a white Christmas. Because Maryland will see daytime high temperatures in the low 50s on Friday, then a freakishly warm 60 degrees Saturday with rain, and another chance of rain Sunday night that will turn into a slight chance of snow if temperatures drop enough, forecasters say.

The National Weather Service calls for a chance of rain and snow before 1 a.m. Sunday, then a slight chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 32. Chance of precipitation is 40 percent. Christmas Day will be mostly sunny, with a high near 37.

In the U.S., a white Christmas is defined as having at least an inch of snow on the ground on Christmas morning. A weak storm system that will move across the Midwest on Christmas Eve will bring snow to Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, says Accuweather. “This system will continue eastward on Christmas Eve night, bringing snow to West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York,” says AccuWeather Meteorologist Ryan Adamson.

He also specified that New York, Boston and Portland, Maine, would then receive some snow on Christmas. But Baltimore and Washington, D.C., seem destined for a brown Christmas.

Weather records going back to 1872 show a typical Christmas day in Baltimore is partly cloudy with a frosty early morning low of 26 and an afternoon high of 43. But the year-to-year weather can vary considerably.

The National Weather Service says snow falling on Christmas day is rare in the Baltimore area. It last happened in 2002 when a generally rainy Christmas morning changed to snow during the late morning to yield an inch of snowfall. However, since 1893 when snowfall records began in Baltimore, only 12 times has there been measurable snow that fell on Christmas. That averages to about once every 10 years, or about 10 percent.

The five highest snowfalls occurring in Baltimore on Christmas are:

• 1909 ... 9.3 inches
• 1969 ... 6.1 inches
• 1902 ... 3.0 inches
• 1962 ... 2.9 inches
• 1935 ... 1.2 inches

The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang agrees, putting the chances of a white Christmas in the region at 10 to 15 percent. "Mood flakes overnight Christmas Eve into predawn Christmas?" the newspaper's forecasters said Friday, with a better chance of snow later next week.

The last time DC had a white Christmas, defined by the National Weather Service as a minimum of 1 inch of snow cover, was 2009, The Post says.

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images News/Getty Images; maps from the National Weather Service and Accuweather