CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Although the term “White Christmas” gets used a lot, the National Weather Service actually has a designation for what constitutes a “white Christmas.”
Will we have a white Christmas in 2020? We shall see. The image below shows the last one for our snow measuring climate sites. Note the official definition of a white Christmas! For those that don’t like that, included is the last time it *snowed* on Christmas more than a trace. pic.twitter.com/Wk6nLHUSsi
— NWS Charleston, WV (@NWSCharlestonWV) December 21, 2020
“The traditional definition for a white Christmas is at least one inch on the ground by 7 a.m. on Christmas Day,” explained National Weather Service Meteorologist Andy Roche at the Charleston Weather Bureau.”
With the definition in mind, Roche is fairly certain the higher elevations of West Virginia are in for a white Christmas and the western lowland counties are going to be be close.
“The precipitation will start as rain, but will quickly turn to snow on Thursday during the day . That will give the lowlands at least a coating of snow, maybe an inch, but the higher elevations could get up to 10 inches,” he said.
Here’s a very early look at our Christmas Day forecast!
A strong arctic cold front is expected to arrive on Christmas Eve. This will bring a very cold air mass to the entire region for Christmas Day! Highs temps on Christmas may remain below freezing for the entire region. pic.twitter.com/p0bC0DbudO
— NWS Charleston, WV (@NWSCharlestonWV) December 19, 2020
Ahead of Thursday, those same areas of the mountains will already have snow on the ground. A Winter Storm Warning in place from 5 p.m. Monday through Tuesday morning for those higher elevations of Randolph, Greenbrier, Pocahontas, and Webster Counties. There is a winter weather advisory for parts of Pendleton, Grant, Tucker, Preston, and Monongalia Counties. .
The changing weather will be riding on a strong cold front which will not only change the precipitation, but according to Roche will turn the temperatures drastically colder for the entire state.
“Temperatures by Christmas will be in the teens in the lowlands and single digits in the higher elevations and it’s going to be windy with wind chills in the single digits and even below zero in the higher elevations,” Roche said.
The wind and cold temperatures are expected to last into part of the weekend after Christmas Day.