Remembrances of Christmas Days Past

The Jackson weather office started keeping climate records on January 1st 1981. This means that 39 Christmas Days have come and gone. Let’s take a look at the history of weather for December 25th.

The coldest Christmas Day was in 1983, when the mercury dropped to 12 degrees below zero. This was the only Christmas when subzero readings were recorded at the Jackson weather service office. In fact, the high temperature only reached 6 degrees that day, which is the coldest high temperature for December 25th.

In contrast, the warmest Christmas Day happened on the previous year, 1982. The temperature soared to 76 degrees. The low temperature was only 59 degrees that day which is the warmest minimum temperature for Christmas Day.

The snowiest Christmas was back in 1993, when 3.6 inches of snow blanketed the ground. There were also three other Christmas occurrences when over an inch of snow fell which were 2.1 inches in 1995, 1.5 inches in 2002, and 1.4 inches in 1992. 12 Christmas Days saw at least a trace of snowfall over the last 39 years.  There have been 5 official white Christmas occurences with at least 1 inch of snow on the ground at 7 am. The greatest Christmas morning snow depth was two inches and happened in 1985 and 1989. There were three Christmas mornings that had a snow depth of one inch, which were 1993, 1995, and 1998. In total, at least a trace of snow was on the ground for 12 of the last 39 Christmas mornings.

The wettest Christmas happened in 1987 when 1.93 inches of rain was received at the Jackson weather office. In total, 17 of the last 29 Christmas Days have seen some type of precipitation.

Here is some other Christmas weather information. There have been 22 Christmas Days when the temperature was equal to or dropped below the freezing mark. There were also 10 days when the high temperature was 32 degrees or below. 14 Christmas Days averaged 32 degrees or less. Over the last 29 Christmas Days, 12 have been dry.

Here is a map for the historical probability for a White Christmas for the entire US:

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Here is the daily data from the Jackson weather office for Christmas since 1981...                                             

                                                                            7 am

Year    High   Low   Precipitation   Snowfall    Snow Depth

1981     44      30          0.00              0.0                 0          

1982     76      59          0.17              0.0                 0

1983      6      -12              T                 T                  T

1984     45      24              T              0.0                  0

1985     17        5          0.02              0.2                 2

1986     41      34          0.01              0.0                 0

1987     59      48          1.93              0.0                 0

1988     47      32          0.00              0.0                 0

1989     24      16          0.02              0.1                 2

1990     31      11              T                  T                 T

1991     45      25          0.00              0.0                 0

1992     37      19          0.06              1.4                 0

1993     31      14          0.17              3.6                 1

1994     46      31          0.00              0.0                 0

1995     27      22          0.06              2.1                 1

1996     33      19          0.00              0.0                 0

1997     54      37          0.09              0.0                 0

1998     33      17          0.00              0.0                 0

1999     27      10          0.00              0.0                 T

2000     23        7          0.00              0.0                 T

2001     31      19          0.00              0.0                 0

2002     42      26          0.28              1.5                 T

2003     32      25          0.02              0.4                 T

2004     33      14          0.00              0.0                 T

2005     48      34          0.49                 T                0

2006     50      38          0.25              0.0                0

2007     47      30          0.00              0.0                0

2008     44      30          0.00              0.0                0

2009     58      34          0.15              0.0                0

2010     28      23          0.09              1.3                1

2011     53      30          0.00              0.0                0

2012     45      33          0.02              0.0                0

2013     40      16          0.00              0.0                0

2014     44      36               T              0.0                0

2015     65      57          0.91              0.0                0

2016     59      48          0.13              0.0                0

2017     30      20          0.01              0.2                0

2018     42      30          0.00              0.0                0

2019     69      39          0.00              0.0                0      

$$

Brewer/Sullivan