Clinton area official weather observer Jim Blaess says there’s a big difference in the first half of December this year compared to last year. Read about the differences. Plus what are the historical odds of a white Christmas
Blaess says the overall temperature so far this month is nearly 32 degrees and in December 2013 over the first 15 days the average was 20 degrees.
Last year there were four days with zero or below temperatures in the first half of the month and this year there hasn’t been any below zero temperatures. He added that in 2013 over the last half of the month there were another four days of below zero weather.
This month, Blaess says there hasn’t been any snowfall and in December 2013 there was just over five inches of snow in the first half of the month. Plus, he said overall in December 2013 there was over 14 inches of snow for the month.
Looking ahead to Christmas, Blaess says there has been a white Christmas in six of the last seven years.
At least one inch of snow on the ground is the standard for a white Christmas.
Over the past seven years, the only year there wasn’t enough snow on the ground was 2011.
Overall since records started in 1920 the Clinton area has had a white Christmas 43 times and did not 51 times or about 41-percent of the time you could call it a White Christmas in the Clinton area.
Blaess also noted that there are ‘streaks’ within the history. He said one example is that from 1952 to 1959 there were no white Christmas days but starting in the 1960’s there were several in a row.
