White Christmas History for Central Alabama
Each year, as Christmas Day approaches, people across Central Alabama begin dreaming of a White Christmas. However, historical records do not hold much hope for a truly classical White Christmas, that is, snow falling and measurable amounts on the ground on Christmas Day. There have been a number of occasions where measurable snow actually fell across Central Alabama on Christmas Day, however no measurable snow was recorded at official observing sites.
Climatological Probabilities (averages from the past 30 years) of a White Christmas
Source: National Centers for Environmental Information
Birmingham area:
- For Birmingham, where nearly 100 years of weather records exist, there has never been a white Christmas in the classic sense.
- Perhaps the closest resemblance to a white Christmas in Birmingham, in recent years, was December, 2010. Flurries (mixed with rain) fell on Christmas day, but snow was not deep enough to measure. Many locations, away from the downtown and airport areas, did receive measurable amounts of snow.
- Three other trace snowfall events occurring in 1993, 1989, 1899 were reported at the Birmingham International Airport on December 25th.
- Weather records show that 5.5 inches of snow fell at the city office on December 22, 1929. On December 24th, there was still 2.5 inches of snow on the ground at 7 PM. However, most of the snow melted Christmas day when the temperature climbed to 51 degrees.
Montgomery area:
- For Montgomery, there has not been a white Christmas since 1919. There have been two years, in 2010 and 1953 where there was a trace amount of snowfall on December 25th.
Tuscaloosa area:
- Tuscaloosa has only reported one trace snowfall events in 2010 on Christmas day.
Anniston area:
- Christmas day 2010 was a white Christmas for many around the Anniston area. Measurable snow was reported at numerous locations around the Anniston area, including 1.0" at the airport
- Anniston has reported a total of three trace snowfall events in 1993, 1989, and 1970 on December 25th.
Christmas Day Snowfall 2010
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