For the nearly 119 million people traveling for the holidays, expect potential weather delays. Winter advisories have already gone into effect in multiple regions following an eventful first day of winter over the weekend. Ahead of Santa Claus’ arrival, folks across the country are in store for "multiple rounds of precipitation," "a corridor of mixed wintry precipitation," and up to a foot of accumulated snow in the mountains, per a National Weather Service report. All of this to say, we’re in for a "very cold start to the holiday week." Keep reading to see how your region may be impacted.
RELATED: This Winter Will Be Full of "Rapid-Fire Storms," Farmers’ Almanac Predicts.
An Arctic chill will set the stage for a potential white Christmas.
Everyone else may be out of the office this holiday season, but Mother Nature isn’t. Frosty weather conditions, including below-zero wind chills, are expected in most parts of the country in the days leading up to Dec. 24, setting the stage for what could be a White Christmas.
A cold front is officially underway along the Eastern Seaboard. Folks in the Northeast, stretching from upstate New York to Maine, woke up to below-zero temperatures this morning thanks to large gusts of Arctic wind, per ABC News. Meanwhile, city dwellers in New York City and Washington D.C. could experience temperatures as low as 10 degrees, with Bostonians just below that in the single digits.
NBC News forecasts a few inches of snow in the interior Northeast, Michigan, and Wisconsin in the next 48 hours. A storm is also brewing in the Great Lakes region, with the possibility of snow flurries.
25 states are likely to wake up in a Winter Wonderland on Christmas.
As defined by the National Weather Service, a white Christmas occurs when there’s at least one inch of snow on the ground by 7 a.m. local time on Christmas Day. So really, you want the brunt of the snowstorm to hit Christmas Eve so that by the time you wake up on the 25th, everything is covered in a blanket of white.
And fortunately, this year, it looks like a Christmas Eve snowstorm could be in the works. About 25 states have a “medium probability” or “high probability” of encountering a white Christmas, according to an AccuWeather forecast.
"A weak storm is likely to move quickly eastward from the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley during the day on Dec. 24 and then through the central Appalachians, the mid-Atlantic and New England from the evening hours on Dec. 24 to early on Christmas Day," AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok explained in an online forecast.
"This storm will bring mostly rain but can bring some mixed frozen precipitation, especially over the northern tier and central Appalachians, where a wedge of cold air is most likely to linger," he added.
Even if there are only flurries, keep in mind that all you need is one inch of snow for it to constitute a “white Christmas.” AccuWeather’s white Christmas forecast is as follows:
- Northern California
- Northwest Arizona
- Northwest New Mexico
- Colorado
- Utah
- Montana
- Oregon
- Washington
- Idaho
- Wyoming
- North Dakota
- Western South Dakota
- Western Nebraska
- Iowa
- Minnesota
- Wisconsin
- North Illinois
- Michigan
- Northern Indiana
- Northern Ohio
- Maine
- Vermont
- New Hampshire
- Upstate New York
- Philadelphia
However, milder temperatures could prevent a white Christmas.
The Weather Channel is predicting snowflakes in the interior Northeast, upper Midwest, Northern Plains, and high elevations (mountain tops) in the West. That said, “even places that do receive snow may climb above freezing during the day allowing for melting,” added the weather agency.
Meanwhile, temperatures in the West and Southwest aren’t expected to dip below 60. A warm winter heat wave—with temperatures ranging from 64 to 78—will increase in temperature from Los Angeles to Miami on Christmas Day.
