White Christmas history for Charlotte is a small one.
If you were hoping for a white Christmas in Charlotte this year I suggest looking at pictures and videos from 2010. Getting snow on Christmas in Charlotte is a very rare event.
That’s why the white Christmas of 2010 was so special to so many residents of the area. Historically in 140 years of weather records in the city, it has only snowed on Christmas day 11 times. That’s only 8% of the years, but 7 of those times it was only a trace which technically doesn’t qualify as a white Christmas. To truly have a white Christmas you need accumulation. Accumulating snows have only occurred 4 times in 140 years in Charlotte on Christmas day. Which means just 3% of the years since records began in Charlotte we have had a white Christmas. So 2010 was the first white Christmas in 63 years and was the 3rd most snow on Christmas day on record. The all-time highest total was 5.8” on Christmas day 1947.
This was also the last time we had a white Christmas before 2010. On top of Charlotte seeing a rare White Christmas most of the Southeast and parts of the mid-South were covered in a blanket of fresh snow by Dec 27th.
2010 Was amazing though for the entire state of North Carolina.
The return frequency of a white Christmas in Charlotte is once every 33.75 years.
There’s higher chance of it being 70° than seeing snow on the ground on Christmas Day.
Warmest Christmas days on record, 3 of the top 10 warmest are in the past 10 years.
Coldest Christmas days on record.
What about this year?
The early winter storm this month was extremely rare. We don;t normally see snow this early and certainly not that much. It seems the pattern is turning milder and our chances of seeing snow around Christmas are even lower than our 3-4% average.
Temperatures
