As Christmas gets closer everyone always wonders if we are going to get the proverbial white Christmas. December just isn't that snowy of a month, ranking as only the fourth (behind March, November and April). Unfortunately, if you look at Denver and Thornton weather history, the chances aren't all that good but it also depends on what you define as a white Christmas.
If a white Christmas means having more than an inch of snow on the ground on Christmas Day, then the chances are about 36%. Since 1900, a mere 39 Christmas Days have had snow on the ground.
But, if you think a white Christmas means actually having measurable snowfall (at least 0.1 inch) on the holiday itself, then the odds drop down to only 13%! Only 14 Christmas Days since 1900 have had the white stuff actually fall on that day.
Recent history though does offer better chances. Since 1973, 18 years had 1 inch or more of snow on the ground for Santa Claus deliveries which is about 53 percent of the time. Seven Christmas Days had measurable snowfall which is about 21 percent of the time.
Having said all of that, there have been some pretty significant snow events around Christmas.
The Christmas Eve blizzard of 1982 gave us the most snow ever on the ground for a Christmas Day with 24 inches! Christmas Day itself that year though saw a mere 0.2 inches of new snowfall but as I recall, we weren't too disappointed about that as we spent the holiday just trying to dig out from Christmas Eves snowfall!
Some other significant Christmas Day snow depths were: 19 inches in 1913; 11 inches in 1918; and 12 inches in 1973 and 15 inches in 2006. The heaviest snowfall on Christmas Day itself was 7.8 inches which occurred in 2007 and the second most was 6.2 inches recorded in 1894.
For more detailed Denver Christmas weather history,
please click here for the complete story.
ThorntonWeather.com is your local source for Thornton weather and weather related news. Provided as a service to the community, ThorntonWeather.com offers real-time weather information, forecasts, radar, statistics and more!