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Will Metro Detroit see a white Christmas this year? Here’s a look at historical snowfall stats

Almost everyone has a 50-50 chance at a white Christmas

DETROIT – With the Christmas holiday right around the corner, it’s time to take a look at what are historical chances of a White Christmas are across Southeast Michigan.

For most everyone, it’s a 50-50 shot on whether we see a white Christmas or not, higher chances exist from areas north of Sandusky into the thumb portion of the state.

Then, as you look into our central and southern communities, including Mount Clemens, down through the metro and into our southern zones, we normally run a 25% to 40% chance of seeing a white Christmas.

Cracking open the record books over the past 10 to 12 years, we’ve seen six out of the last 12 years have snow on the ground on Christmas morning.

We had 5 inches of snow in 2017 and 2010, 3 inches of snow in 2016 and an inch of snow in 2012 in 2020, with a trace of snow in 2013.

So again, we run right about a 50-50 chance of seeing snow on the ground. That’s where we’ve been over the past 12 years, seeing six of those have some sort of measurable snow on the ground.

Snow on ground on Christmas morning (WDIV)

Will we get a white Christmas this year?

Now, in terms of what we may see for this year, the models are split on a possible white Christmas scenario.

Some of the models have a system late next week that would give us a significant amount of snow. Other models take the low-pressure system that would bring us the snow and drive it well to the south and keep us with just a glancing blow with possibly the thumb portion of the state getting a little bit of snow before anybody else.

We will continue to fine tune this part of the forecast as we go through the weekend and into next week.

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About the Author
Bryan Schuerman headshot

Bryan became a permanent member of the 4Warn Weather Team in March 2023 after coming to Local 4 in May 2022 as a freelance meteorologist.

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