Santa Claus brings coldest Christmas across the Delaware Valley since 2000
PHILADELPHIA - Jack Frost has most certainly been nipping at noses all around the Delaware Valley as temperature reached a high of just 20 degrees to bring the coldest Christmas in more than two decades!
Of course, there is a benefit to this weekend's cold weather: a little White Christmas! Remnants of Friday's snow were still on some yards and on roofs in our region for Christmas Day.
Some snow remains on the ground in Chester County on Christmas Day.
But, it turns out it's rare to have snow on Christmas, or a healthy amount of snow on the ground Christmas morning.
Weather averages, like average highs, are computed over a 30-year period to account for changes in our climate. Looking at weather records for the last 30 years, our shot of having snow on Christmas Day or an inch of snow still on the ground were pretty low:
- Philadelphia: 20%
- Allentown: 23%
- Wilmington: 20%
- Atlantic City: 17%
The last time we got more than flurries in Philadelphia on Christmas was 2002 - we got just over an inch that day! The last time we had an inch of snow on the ground Christmas morning was 2009.
The National Weather Service that oversees Alaska took a closer look at Christmas snowfalls and Christmas Days with snow on the ground:
Philadelphia
Of those 70 years, 13 of them had measurable snow falling on Christmas, or an inch of snow already on the ground. If you count all those years, Philly's chance at getting a White Christmas is still around 20 percent.
Allentown
Wilmington
Atlantic City
FOX 29's Drew Anderson looked up the missing years in Atlantic City, and there was an inch of snow on the ground in 1998 and 2000, and it snowed in 2002.
So, what's in store for the rest of winter? Watch your Weather Authority's winter forecast.
As we close out 2022, we'll be warming up each day this week. You could say our temperatures step up each day with rain expected at midnight on New Year's Eve and rain on New Year's Day.
