NOAA Magazine || NOAA Home Page SANTA ASKS NOAA: WHO WILL HAVE A WHITE CHRISTMAS?
To help Santa with his travel plans, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center has created a report that is available online. The report contains maps and tables showing the percent probabilities for a snow depth of at least one inch on Christmas morning, as well as the probabilities for a depth of at least five inches and 10 inches. These probabilities are based on long-term climatology and not on current weather patterns. The report is available online. The actual conditions may vary widely from these probabilities. The snow on the ground or snowfall on Christmas day will depend on the actual weather pattern during that time. These probabilities are useful as a guide only to show where snow on the ground is more likely. To obtain the latest weather forecast for your area, contact NOAA's National Weather Service. NOAA's National Climatic Data Center has more than 150 years of weather data on hand. These data range from handwritten observations taken by volunteers in the 19th century to more sophisticated radar, radiosonde, rocketsonde and satellite observations by state-of-the-art equipment. The data include satellite weather images back to 1960, with 55 gigabytes of new information added each daythat is equivalent to 18 million pages a day. Relevant Web Sites
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