Dear Tom,
In the Chicago-based movie “Christmas with the Kranks”, it’s pointed out that it is quite unusual to have snow fall on Christmas Day. How rare is this?
Dave Milner
Dear Dave,
Snowfall on Christmas Day is actually a rather common occurrence in Chicago. In the 135 Christmases of record in Chicago’s climatology, which dates back to 1870, some snow (a trace of more) has fallen on Dec. 25 a total of 69 times (51%), with measurable snowfall (0.1″ or more) having occurred 43 of those occasions (32%). However, in all those 135 years the city has never been hit by a huge Christmas Day snowstorm, the largest snowfalls being 5.1″ in 1950 and 5.0″ in 1909. Back in the 1940s Chicago experienced a period of snowy Christmases where measurable snow fell on seven of eight Christmas Days, from 1944 through the very snowy 1950 Christmas, with only 1946 reporting no snowfall.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or asktomwhy@wgntv.com (Mail volume precludes personal response.)
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
