Here’s how extreme Christmas weather can be around the world
While it’s a snowy holiday on postcards, few locations around the world actually experience a white Christmas. The Southern Hemisphere is immersed in the heat of summer while most people in the Northern Hemisphere live south of where snow is common.
But in certain places and at certain times, Christmas weather can be extreme in a variety of ways. Let’s take a look at the range of Christmas weather extremes observed around the world.
United States
Coming just a few weeks before the coldest time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, Christmastime can be frigid. According to Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist based in Alaska, here’s just how cold and snowy it can get:
• In the Lower 48 states, the lowest Christmas temperature was minus-53 degrees in Riverside, Oregon, in 1924.
• Alaska’s lowest Christmas Day temperature was minus-66 degrees in Allaket in 1994. (The lowest day time high was minus-56 in Allaket and in Eagle in 1917 and 1961, respectively.)
• The most snow to occur on Christmas, 44 inches, fell in Mount Rainier in Washington state in 2015. (Mount Rainier and Mount Baker, where 160 inches was on the ground in 1996 and 1948, respectively, hold the record for the deepest Christmas snow cover.)
Strong Arctic blasts can sweep across the Lower 48 around Christmas. The most intense on record occurred in 1983 while another severe cold shot came through in 1980.
In 1983, more than 100 cold records were broken in cities across the central and eastern U.S. During the 1980 onslaught, temperatures fell as low as minus-36 in New York state.
Sometimes, major winter storms strike. Last year, one of Buffalo’s worst blizzards on record concluded around Christmas.
In 2002, a blockbuster snowstorm struck the Northeast, dropping more than a foot in the interior and several inches in the big cities along Interstate 95.
At low elevations, several locations where snow is generally rare have observed a white Christmas, including: Tucson in 1987; Las Vegas in 1988; Corpus Christi in 2004; Atlanta in 2010; and Dallas in 2012.
Even though Christmas falls just a few days after the winter solstice, it can still be hot across the southern tier. In Texas, it’s reached 92 degrees in multiple locations in different years.
Severe thunderstorms can also strike on the holiday. In 2012, a tornado outbreak spawned more than two dozen tornadoes across the South – the largest Christmas outbreak on record.
The rest of the Northern Hemisphere
Christmas temperatures around the North Pole average about minus-10 to minus-20 degrees. Russia’s Siberia is typically the coldest spot in the hemisphere during winter and Dec. 25 is no different.
Average temperatures there are about minus-30 to minus-40 on Christmas. Low temperatures in northern Siberia can dip to minus-60 to minus-80 degrees. This year it could be that cold in Greenland where some of the most frigid air is currently situated.
North of 50 degrees latitude, a white Christmas is the norm in much of Russia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland and the Nordic countries. It’s also the norm at elevations at or above 7,500 feet even in the midlatitudes.
Mark Vogan, a meteorologist based in England, gathered some Christmas weather details on the United Kingdom. He reported the deepest snow on record in England on Dec. 25 was 16.9 inches in 1981 and 2009. The deepest measured in all of the United Kingdom was 18.4 inches in Kindrogan, Scotland in 1981.
This year, snow cover extent in North America is lowest on record for the time year and it’s below normal averaged over the Northern Hemisphere.
The Southern Hemisphere
As summer arrives, snow largely disappears in the Southern Hemisphere. An exception to this are glaciers in the high elevations of the Andes, of course, the frozen continent of Antarctica.
This year’s Southern Hemisphere snow extent is actually above average largely because of a significant amount lingering in the Andes.
Several mountain peaks in New Zealand also rise above 10,000 feet and hold have hung onto some snow in addition to glaciers. Africa’s tallest peak – Mount Kilimanjaro – rises past 19,000 feet. It has a little snow even as its glaciers are receding.
The Southern Hemisphere has produced some memorable Christmas weather events.
On Dec. 25, 1975, Cyclone Tracy made landfall in Darwin, Australia. Equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane, it devastated the city.
While beach or pool days are more common around Christmas, parts of Australia have also seen snow during the holidays. In 2006, the mountains of Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania were frosted with a fresh coating.
More often, though, it’s hot. Temperatures can rise to 110 or even 120 degrees across a large portion of Australia and also in several countries across South America. Hitting the century mark or higher is also common in parts of Africa.