We’ve put that whole White Christmas thing behind us (it’s very white with over 32 inches of snow already).
But what about how cold this Christmas will be? It won’t be the coldest ever, but it is looking like a historically cold December 24th and 25th anyway.
Right now, the National Weather Service says the high on Saturday will be 4 (above), and on Sunday 5 (above). Pretty cold for December in general and certainly for Christmas.
The Minnesota state climatology office has tracked weather for every December 24 and 25 since records were kept in 1899. Here’s what we’ve found.
The award for the coldest on Christmas Eve goes to 1983 at 10 below and on Christmas Day 1996 we “warmed” to 9 below zero. Yikes. The low temps were even worse with 25 below in 1983 and 22 below in 1996.
The warmest Christmas Day in the Twin Cities was 51 degrees in 1922, the only time we’ve ever topped 50 on either the 24th or 25th. Not a very white Christmas that year either. We hit 46 degrees on Christmas Eve 1957.
Our predicted high of 4 this year on 12/24 would make it tied for 7th coldest since 1899. Other than the bone-chilling 10 below in 1983, only one other time (1921) did we fail to top zero.
For Christmas Day, there have been a few days that came close to the 9 below in 1996 but it’s been a long time. It was 6 below in 1933, 5 below in 1914, 1 below in 1903 and 2 below in 1902. Overall, there have been 9 Christmases colder than the expected high of 5 this year.
The last time Christmas Eve was colder than 2022 was in 2000, and the last time Christmas was this cold was only back in 2017.
By the way, there have been very few significant snowfalls on Christmas in the Twin Cities. The most significant was in 1945 where 11.3 inches fell in Downtown Minneapolis on December 24 and 25t, shutting down street traffic in the Twin Cities, with huge drifts impeding pedestrian traffic as well. Minneapolis street department employees used every piece of equipment available to clear the streets for Christmas. There were 5-inch snowfalls in 2009 and 1950. Otherwise big snow events have been rare.
It’s also very rare to be this chilly at the end of December but not unprecedented. The average high for these two days is 26 degrees, which sounds like a heatwave after the week we just experienced in Minnesota.
It should be noted, last year we were basking in 43 degrees on Christmas Eve and 29 on Christmas Day. The good old days.
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