Herald Staff and News Services
It’s not just a case of nostalgia distorting childhood memories. For many Americans, white Christmases really were more common back when they were kids.
A study of four decades of Dec. 25 statistics in 16 U.S. cities found that Christmas Day snows of at least an inch have declined since the 1960s.
Altogether, the number of white Christmases per decade dropped from 78 in the 1960s to 39 in the 1990s, according to researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
White Christmases also seem to be more rare than they used to be in Snohomish and Island counties.
Oak Ridge meteorologist Dale Kaiser said the findings confirm what many people probably suspected.
"If we think back to Christmas mornings through our lives, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of us didn’t say, ‘Gee, I don’t remember white Christmases since I was a kid,’ " Kaiser said. "Yes, we are experiencing fewer white Christmases than we did 40 years ago."
Kaiser, who ordinarily spends his time studying climate change in the United States, Russia and China, cautioned against reading too much into the survey. He said global warming might be a factor, but the survey did not look for causes or consider longer-term trends.
Seattle had two snowy Christmases in the 1960s, while Washington, D.C., had four, but neither has had one since then. New York had five in the ’60s, and only one in each of the last three decades. Boston had eight white Christmases in the ’60s, but only two in the ’90s.
Chicago recorded seven in the decade 40 years ago, falling to five in the ’70s, four in the ’80s and two in the ’90s.
The survey revealed that the most reliable places to find snow on Christmas Day were Tahoe City, Calif.; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. Each had seven or more white Christmases in each of the past four decades.
The researchers gave little attention to Southern cities. Weather records dating to 1896 show Atlanta has never had a white Christmas.
Seattle was the only Washington city included in the study. But in Snohomish County, towns in the foothills of the Cascades were more likely to see a white Christmas.
"We used to get a lot more white Christmases. Nowadays, we’re fortunate if we do get one," said Diane Holz, an employee at the Darrington Ranger Station.
Being close to the Cascades, though, doesn’t automatically mean residents get to enjoy a winter wonderland on Dec. 25.
"Honestly, I don’t think we’ve had a whole lot of white Christmases here," said Stacy Criswell, a building inspector for Sultan who was born and raised in town.
Other areas, many closer to the Everett area, seem to get snow when Sultan goes without, Criswell said. But that doesn’t keep folks from hoping.
"About two days ago, I was telling my wife I really hope it snows for Christmas. Two minutes later on the news it said they don’t think we’ll get a white Christmas," he said, adding they haven’t had one in five years.
— Herald writer Brian Kelly contributed to this report.
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