SPOKANE, Wash. — It's that time when we're dreaming of a white Christmas!
Statistically and historically, depending on where you live in the Inland Northwest, that chance varies wildly.
In Spokane, it's about a 60% chance that any given year will be a White Christmas. That's defined by have 1" of snow on the ground (snow depth) on Christmas morning or if it snows at all on Christmas Day.
But it's been 3 years since Spokane had a White Christmas, 2017 being the most recent.
The unique topography and elevation differences in eastern Washington make it so that everyone has nearly a different chance of getting a white Christmas
Sandpoint's probably is about 74%. Wallace is up to 81%. And Republic, WA is as high as 89%. Of course, any mountain is guaranteed to have a white Christmas for our area.
But on the other end, the city with the lowest chance of seeing a white Christmas is Lewiston at 16%. The Tri-Cities are even lower probably-wise with Kennewick's white Christmas chance just 4% overall!
In 2020, as we close in on Christmas, the temperatures for the weekend before will be in the 40s and close to 50 degrees. There won't be any leftover snow depth after that except for some cities closest to the Canadian boarder. So we'll need a fresh snowfall in the week leading up to Christmas or just snowfall on Christmas Day itself.
However, the extended outlook's temperature trend continues to favor above average temperatures. For reference, the average high temp in Spokane on Christmas is 32 degrees.
What makes this December and Christmas forecast unusual is that we're in the middle of a La Nina winter. A winter that tends to be colder and snowier than normal for the region. But this 3-month outlook doesn't account for daily weather systems through the winter.
We are getting well above average precipitation, but the warmer temps have lead to more rain than snow in the days leading up to the holiday.
