Is this the year? Thanks to holiday movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and songs like “White Christmas,” snow is an expected feature of the season, at least in our area. But is how do you define a White Christmas? Does it count if there is snow on the ground, even if it fell earlier? Does it count when snow fell on December 25th, even if it isn’t recorded until the 26th? It is a White Christmas, for most of us, if there is snow on the ground or if snow falls on the 25th. In northeastern Kansas, this occurs only one in every five years. Our last White Christmas in Manhattan was in 2013, when 7 inches remained on the ground from an earlier storm. The last time snowfall was reported on the 25th was in 2009, when 6.1 inches was reported.
Mary Knapp, Weather Data Library
mknapp@ksu.edu