DENVER — It's the question that's probably on a lot of your minds: Will Denver and/or Colorado see a white Christmas?
First off, we should probably start by taking a look at the overall probabilities for seeing a white Christmas in Denver. The official definition of a white Christmas is having an inch or more of snow on the ground on Christmas morning.
Over the years, there's a roughly two in five shot (38%, to be exact) chance of having a white Christmas in Denver. However, we've had lesser luck in recent seasons, with only seven of Denver's past 30 Christmases having an inch or more of snow on the ground.
It's probably needless to say that most of the mountains are always a near-lock to have an inch or more of snow on the ground by Christmas Day.
This year's forecast
An active pattern makes it fairly likely that the mountains should get a decent storm on or just before Christmas Day.
The jet stream will be overhead in the days leading up to Christmas, helping pump in Pacific moisture and generally leading to a more active pattern around Colorado and the Southwest.
This same pattern, however, makes it less likely that Denver will get snow or even colder temperatures in or around the Christmas holiday. A roaring jet stream overhead makes it more likely that Denver will feel downsloping (or warming and drying) winds, keeping our dry and mild stretch intact into next week.
The mountains, however, stand to get some decent snow. There's some disagreement among the computer forecast models about timing with next week's storms, but it's looking likely that by Thursday, snow should start up in the mountains and continue through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Here's one computer forecast model's projection for how much snow the mountains could wind up with by Dec. 26:
Stay with 9NEWS for the latest on your Christmas Day forecast and beyond.
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