Though Christmas is still three weeks away, it’s never too early to review the normal weather for the holiday.
Of course, in the days leading up to Christmas, most locals will be excitedly examining the weather reports to see if the city will experience a “White Christmas” this year, but how often does it happen?
Regardless of whether the snow fell on Christmas Day, the National Weather Service defines a “White Christmas” as any holiday when there is at least one inch of snow on the ground.
Chicago has experienced a “White Christmas” roughly 41% of the time since records have been kept, according to data from the NWS. This dates back to 1884.
According to the NWS weather almanac, that figure includes the previous year, when there was only one inch of snow on the ground for the holiday.
The record for the most snow Chicago has ever seen on Christmas Day itself was 5.1 inches, which was achieved back in 1950.
The next year, Chicago set a record for the deepest snow, with 17 inches falling on the ground over the holiday.
About one-third of the Christmas Days since record keeping began have seen snowfall in Chicago, according to NWS data.
Based on NWS data, the city has not seen any significant snowfall on Christmas Day since 2017. Even still, the holiday saw just 0.1 inches of snowfall, or little more than a “trace” accumulation.
In Chicago, the typical Christmas Day high temperature is 34 degrees, while the typical low temperature is 22 degrees.
In Chicago, the highest Christmas temperature ever recorded (dating from 1871) was 64 degrees, reached in 1982.
With a high of minus five degrees, the following year, 1983, saw the lowest Christmas high temperature ever recorded in Chicago. That Christmas, the lowest recorded temperature was an extremely cold negative-17, the coldest ever recorded for the holiday.
Christmas 2022 in Chicago was the coldest on record, with a high temperature of just 14 degrees.
Even long-range forecast models are unable to accurately predict what will happen in Chicago in the near future, but climate projections indicate that the city will probably see warmer-than-normal winter temperatures because of the ongoing El Niño event in the Pacific Ocean.