When were the top 10 white Christmases in Erie? Find out about the snowiest holidays
You might be dreaming about a white Christmas and when it comes to Erie, recent history says you have a fairly good chance of some snow falling on the holiday itself.
That's based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data recording Erie snowfall on Dec. 25 going back to 1893. Christmas Day has an average of 1 inch of snow in Erie, according to NOAA. The data shows that zero snow fell on 47 of the 130 Christmas Days in Erie between 1893 and 2022. That's 36% with no snow. Another 82 Christmases — snowfall data is missing for 1997 — had at least a trace of snow. That's 63%. Eleven of the snow days were noted as having three or more inches.
Keep in mind, however, that a year with zero snowfall on Dec. 25 could have still had a white Christmas if snow fell before the holiday and hadn't melted from the ground.
NOAA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce and includes the National Weather Service, has online weather data, also including temperatures and precipitation, for Christmas in Erie starting in 1873. Snowfall data is missing, for a variety of reasons, until 1893 and in 1997.
Christmas Days with least snowfall in Erie
Zero snow was recorded for Erie on Dec. 25, 1893, but that's not surprising as the low temperature was 42 degrees Fahrenheit and the high was 62 that day.
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Forty-six other Erie Christmases saw no flakes fall over the following years, according to NOAA data. The longest run of no Christmas snow was from 1927 to 1933. Finally, on Dec. 25, 1934, half an inch of snow fell.
Another 23 Christmas Days had only a trace of snow, most recently in 2018, which was a relief for many after the previous year.
Most Christmas Day snowfalls for Erie
The most snow recorded for Erie on Christmas Day so far was, of course, from the storm of 2017, when the flakes started coming down on Christmas Eve and continued throughout the next day. NOAA put the total for Christmas Day in Erie at 20.9 inches, according to the online data. Another 21.8 inches was recorded the day after Christmas 2017.
The next Christmas, only a trace of snow was recorded, followed by none in 2019. In 2020, the Dec. 25 snow total was 12.5 inches for Erie. That was followed by zero inches in 2021 and 1.7 in 2022.
Here are the top 10 Christmas Day snowfalls for Erie, according to NOAA data:
10. 3.7 inches in 2003
9. 4.9 inches in 1966
8. 5 inches in 1983
7. 5.6 inches in 1977
6. 5.8 inches in 1944
5. 6 inches in 1993
4. 6.3 inches in 1985
3. 8.1 inches in 2002
2. 12.5 inches in 2020
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Find more Erie weather information
Find lots more weather data for Erie County and elsewhere at data.goerie.com.
Dana Massing can be reached at dmassing@timesnews.com.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Top 10 snowiest Christmases in Erie include record 2017
