AccuWeather's Lead Long-Range Expert Paul Pastelok was live on the AccuWeather Network on Dec. 16 to discuss who could see a white Christmas in the United States this year.
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00:00Well of course we want to think snow for this next segment because joining me right now is
00:04AccuWeather lead long-range expert Paul Pastelok. He is joining us for a look at that white Christmas
00:11forecast. Of course Hanukkah starts the same evening but Hanukkah shifts by the lunar cycle
00:15so we're going to focus on Christmas because it's the same day every year Paul. It is it is and
00:21and it's and it's one day and it's like the most popular day when it comes to having snow on the
00:26ground. Everybody wants to know is there going to be snow on the ground at my house on Christmas
00:32day and it's very very difficult in some places but it's automatic if you live in the higher
00:37elevations. Now the countdown is on nine days left some of the pattern to get snow into next
00:42week will be what happens this week so talk a little bit about what's coming up. Yeah Bernie
00:47and I talked about this on Friday uh the one thing that has changed from our thinking is that the
00:53the system that was supposed to come on the weekend is not getting its act together completely
00:58but we still have a big upper level high in western Canada and the northwest and it's going to
01:03push down some cold air so we will get some systems that can produce some snow especially
01:08the northern tier Great Lakes and interior northeast but may stick around for a little
01:13while but the thing is is that cold will be prevalent probably into the weekend with that
01:18jet stream diving all the way down to the south and hopefully it keeps some of the snow on the
01:22ground that we see on this map right now snow cover currently in the northeast but unfortunately
01:28in parts of Pennsylvania and also in West Virginia except the higher elevations you're going to lose
01:33some of that snow or the warm-up coming uh as we go into this week and a little bit next week as
01:37well the the upper plains and the uh midwest that's that's interesting there there's some
01:43snow on the ground Melissa right now and I'm wondering if that's going to stick around or if
01:48that's going to get a race again this milder pattern that's coming up this week it's going
01:51to be such a close call now we talk about where we would commonly see white Christmases and
01:58obviously you have to head north the farther north you are the more likely you will find it
02:02also it has to do with where the moisture is yeah it is and you need all you need both you need the
02:06cold and you need the moisture and it's a very difficult uh time to get snow at this time of the
02:13year in parts of the Tennessee valley in the southern plain states it almost has to be perfect
02:18for them to have snow on the ground for Christmas day and you can see the percentages lower
02:22dramatically as you go farther south but in the higher elevations it's almost automatic the
02:27Adirondacks you're talking about the central Rockies the Cascades the Sierras and they've
02:32had fresh snow we got lots of systems coming into the west coast and so they'll continue to get
02:37pounded over the next two weeks a lot of spots here still questioning what's going to happen
02:42into next week so this is a look what you've got laid out for us well i'll just say overall
02:48the pattern we got a couple systems this week mostly northern tier of the nation far northern
02:53you'll get a little bit snow elsewhere it's going to be rain unfortunately and then next week there's
02:58a system close by on Christmas eve Christmas day we'll get to that in just a second but again you
03:02look at the uh forecast that just came out hot off the presses right here in the plain states that
03:08area there may be missing out on precipitation that's the reason why we have a low probability
03:14of a white Christmas in parts of western Nebraska in the western Dakotas and unfortunately the 95
03:19corridor we're kind of missing out here up until maybe just before Christmas I think we just don't
03:24have any snow on the ground it's going to melt away if anything is in the area from the last
03:28system that just came through but again the percentages look typical what you would typically
03:33see from the historical probabilities yeah I think there's going to be some happy folks too
03:38because I have a lot of family in the Minneapolis area they are standardly when you're talking about
03:44cities above a million people one of those spots that's most likely to see a white Christmas last
03:48year they had nothing on the ground now they have a trace this morning so we'll see how things shape
03:54out for them but it does look a little more favorable so I think I'm with you Melissa I
03:58think the upper midwest great lakes interior northeast have the better chance here outside of
04:03higher elevations to have snow on the ground and again we're watching that system around Christmas
04:07Eve Christmas Day to see if it can produce a little bit of snow maybe in parts of the northern
04:12mid-Atlantic and southern New England area all right we'll all be dreaming of it at least many
04:17of us especially the young ones too AccuWeather lead long range expert Paul Pastelak thank you
04:22so much for joining us