Snow Controversy! – NBC Boston

Almost everyone loves a white Christmas, but there’s actually more to it than just whether there’s snow on December 25 – and there’s quite a bit of controversy too!

The National Weather Service says 2019 was Boston’s last white Christmas, based on area-wide sightings from cooperating weather observers), but I say it’s 2017, and the purists actually say 2009. The difference revolves around the “official” definition of a white christmas.

A long time ago National Weather Service decreed that there bowl be at least 1 inch of snow on the ground at precisely 7 Christmas mornings to qualify as a white Christmas.

Slide the image above to see when Boston’s last white Christmas was, depending on the interpretation.

I say humbug! The weather record for each other the weather variable is exactly midnight to midnight on a given day. So why this exception for snow on December 25?

I’m certainly not above the argument, and may need to check my ego here, but when we have storms like in 2017 – when the snow started after 7 – makes it difficult to defend the “Christmas snow rule”.

If you took a poll, I’m sure 99.99% of people would have thought it was a white Christmas that year.

Good news for Christmas travelers: It looks calm on December 25 and the next few days. This is what it will look like for Christmas and the subsequent warming.

For the record, this year qualifies as a white Christmas because it meets the strictest requirement of an inch or more of snow on the ground at 7.00. With temperatures below freezing overnight, our 4 inches of snow in Boston is sure to be there Christmas morning.

Explore one interactive map of the National Weather Service’s historical probability of a white Christmas where you live (by their definition) here.

Residents were shocked to find a fence erected on a popular sledding hill in Wellesley, Mass., after the recent snowfall. Here’s what happened. Follow NBC10 Boston: