Stop dreaming about it; we have it: a white Christmas, the sung-about, made-movies-about ideal for Dec. 25, the Christian celebration of Jesus' birth.
And we're far from alone.
The East Coast got pounded with a major snowstorm over the weekend, and much of Wisconsin was hit earlier in the month.
A major storm is in the forecast, and nearly the entire state of Minnesota is expected to be blanketed with snow come Friday, according to the state climatology office. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and much of our Arrowhead region are practically guaranteed a white Christmas, which is loosely defined as having at least 1 inch of snow on the ground.
We can pity Minnesotans living to the south and west, where the chances of a white Christmas are significantly lower than here. Of course, even in the likeliest-to-be brown southwestern corner of the state, there's still a better-than-average chance -- a 60 percent chance -- that Bing Crosby's classic tune will be embraced and sung with joyous accuracy.
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Not that a white Christmas is a rarity for us winter-loving Northlanders.
Hibbing and International Falls are among only five cities in the U.S. with 100 percent chances of at least 1 inch of snow on the ground each Dec. 25, according to the National Climatic Data Center. The others are Marquette, Mich., Sault Ste Marie, Mich., and Stampede Pass, Wash. Stampede Pass ranks as the only place with a 100 percent chance of at least 5 inches of snow on the ground on Dec. 25.
In Duluth, a wimpy 3 inches of crusty snow was all that could be measured over the weekend at the airport. The chance there'll still be at least 1 inch by Friday is 98 percent. The probability downtown is 97 percent. In other words, go ahead and bet the bottom-of-the-tree bounty on it.
Only three times -- in 1923, 1939 and 1979 -- did Duluth fail to have even 1 inch of snow on Christmas Day, according to research done by the Duluth Public Library. Four other years -- in 1967, 1984, 1997 and 1999 -- Duluth had just the 1-inch minimum to qualify for white-Christmas status.
Christmas Day 2002 was nearly as bare as this year, with just 2 inches of snow on the ground.
So why is white a Christmas a big deal? It really isn't in the grand scheme of things. But according to Mr. Crosby, glistening treetops do make for very merry and bright celebrations. And that certainly seems worth dreaming about.
