2023 Was The Nation's Least Expansive White Christmas In 20 Years

Nebraska White Christmas Pileup

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Christmas 2023 was America's least snow-covered in at least two decades, from a mild December pattern.

The sad Christmas snow cover: By historical standards, America's snow cover was pathetic on the holiday in 2023.

O​utside the Mountain West and a few parts of the high country of upstate New York, the Central Appalachians and northern New England where all snow didn't melt from a wet East Coast storm, there wasn't much significant snow on the ground anywhere else in the Lower 48 states, except for a modest stripe of snow from a holiday blizzard in parts of the Northern Plains.

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A​ record dating at least 20 years: Only 17.6 percent of the Lower 48 had snow on the ground on Dec. 25, 2023. According to NOAA, that was the least expansive Christmas morning snow cover in the contiguous U.S. since 2003.

Over the past 20 years, an average of 37 percent of the Lower 48 had that Christmas morning blanket of snow. In 2022, over half of the nation was covered during a holiday cold snap.

S​ome weird "non-white" Christmases: T​his map produced by the National Weather Service shows just how unusual this dearth of snow was, particularly in areas near the Canadian border.

This lead to some rather unusual sights in parts of the Midwest and East.

C​aribou, Maine, was left with snowless, bare ground on Christmas for only the seventh time since 1940. They hadn't seen even just an inch of snow cover at the National Weather Service office since Dec. 15.

M​arquette, Michigan, had only its fourth "brown Christmas" since 1961, and its first year without even a "trace" of snow on the ground on the holiday. They average a foot of Christmas snow cover, and 18 inches of snow was on the ground on Christmas 2022.

Canada, too: That snowless ground also extended into Canada from the prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan eastward into southern Ontario. Taking that into account, it's the least snow cover in North America for late December since at least 2005. The lack of snow cover was more typical of early April, than around Christmas.

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Then there was the warmth: It was also a record-smashing warm Christmas in parts of the upper Midwest.

T​emperatures soared into the 50s as far north as the Lake Superior shore. Among the daily record highs on Christmas included Traverse City, Michigan (58 degrees); Green Bay, Wisconsin (54); Minneapolis-St. Paul (54) and Chicago (50).

M​arquette, Michigan, set its all time warmest December low temperature when they only dipped to 42 degrees on Christmas. That's an average low temperature in late May, rather than Christmas.

M​ost 'Brown Christmas' in decades? While there isn't daily national snow cover data prior to the past 25 years, scientists at t​he Rutgers University Global Snow Lab have compiled weekly snow cover data in the Northern Hemisphere since satellite monitoring began in 1966.

They found 1980 to have had the least expansive last week of December snow cover both in the U.S. and North America.

B​ut they're weren't expecting 2023 to match that.

"​While the extent of snow cover across the lower 48 states is expected to be below average this Christmas season, it is unlikely to be as low as in late December 1980," said David Robinson, head of Rutgers University's Global Snow Lab and New Jersey state climatologist, in an email to weather.com prior to Christmas 2023.

Why so brown and warm? First, as lead meteorologist Linda Lam wrote, a warm December in much of the central and eastern U.S. is typical during a strong El Niño,happening right now.

A​nd even with limited daylight around the winter solstice (Dec. 21), this lack of snow cover allows the sun's rays to more effectively warm the ground and air above it, instead of largely reflecting off snow cover.

Lastly, climate change is increasing the fraction of precipitation falling as rain, instead of snow, in the Northeast and shortening the snow season in the Northern Plains, according to Climate Central.

S​o, if you want that snowy scene this Christmas, you'll probably have to head to the mountains or watch a classic holiday movie.

M​ORE ON WEATHER.COM

-​ 'Super El Niño' A Coin-Flip Chance

-​ How El Niño Could Impact Snowfall This Season

-​ How El Niño Got Its Name

-​ New Research Points To El Niño - Climate Change Connection

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. His lifelong love of meteorology began with a close encounter with a tornado as a child in Wisconsin. He studied physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then completed his Master's degree working with dual-polarization radar and lightning data at Colorado State University. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on X (formerly Twitter), Threads, Facebook and Bluesky.

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