CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- We can expect mild temperatures on Christmas Day in the Chicago area, but no new snowfall, which fits quite nicely with the average.If you include this Christmas, with its prediction of no snow and mild temperatures, there will have been less than an inch of snow in five of the past 10 Christmases. Christmas Day temperatures were also in the 40s, five of the past 10 years.
National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Krein said it’s just the "luck of the draw" and not really something you can pin on climate change.
"It may have been relatively warm on Christmas, but a week later, it might have been much colder than normal. That’s not unusual," he said.One plus about having warmer than usual temperatures, Krein said, it makes it easier for travelers to get about.
"I like a white Christmas as much as anybody, but having no snow on Christmas makes things much safer for people. It makes travel easier," he said.And speaking of a "white Christmas," according to National Weather Service, Chicago has had a trace to a 5.1 inches of snow in 73 of the past 146 years - 50 percent of the time. The Chicago record high temperature for Christmas was in 1982 with 64 degrees and the record low temperature came the next year, with minus 17.