What are the odds for a white Christmas?

Since winter break is only two days away, and many of you will be traveling out of state, I thought this might be a cute article to help you make your decisions as you begin to pack. We all know that the odds of a white Christmas are zero, but many other parts of the United States are already seeing signs of a white Christmas as I write this. For us, we might just have to pull out those sweaters, but for others, pull out those boots and ear muffs.

Meteorologists can't forecast more than three or four days ahead of time whether a particular place is likely to have snow on the ground on Christmas. U.S. weather records averaged over a 30-year period show that only five places with long-term weather records are practically guaranteed to have a white Christmas. These include Marquette and Sault Ste Marie in Michigan, Hibbing and International Falls in Minnesota, and Stampede Pass in Washington.
Wide areas of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, much of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and western mountains including the Cascades of Washington and Oregon, California's Sierra, and the Rockies from Montana and Idaho south into southern Colorado have a better than 90% chance of snow on the ground at Christmas.

Maybe on day soon, we will have a white Christmas...