Dreaming of a white Christmas? Go to Fairbanks, Alaska, where an inch or more of snow has been on the ground every Christmas day for 50 straight years.
Samantha Borisoff, a climatologist in Cornell's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-supported Northeast Regional Climate Center, examined 50 years of weather data and calculated the chances for a white Christmas and a dry New Year's Eve for various cities throughout the United States.
As for the contiguous U.S., there's a 96 percent chance of celebrating the holiday in a winter wonderland in Duluth, Minn.
In the Northeast, it'll be lovely weather for a sleigh ride together in Pinkham Notch, N.H., where there's a 95 percent chance of an inch or more of snow on the ground on the 25th. And as for New York, Watertown will most likely be white: There's a 76 percent chance of it, anyway.
As for looking to stay dry on New Year's Eve, Borisoff advises gambling on Las Vegas, where there's only a 2 percent chance of measurable precipitation on that day. Miami shouldn't have much falling from the sky on New Year's Eve, either, with only an 18 percent chance of precipitation.
And for some people's ultimate New Year's destination, New York City, there's a 46 percent chance it will rain or snow during New Year's celebrations in the Big Apple.
City-by-city lists for Christmas snow and New Year's Eve precipitation, as well as graphics and an Excel spreadsheet with this data, are available online.
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More information: cornell.box.com/holidayweather
www.nrcc.cornell.edu/
