Tag Archives: Ohio Christmas weather

Christmas Day Climatology

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Christmas Day climatology Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio weather is has varied wildly over the 143 years of records, and the holidays are no different. It’s seen record warmth into the 60s, and record cold well below zero, as well as heavy snow and driving rainstorms. The records below break down Columbus’ historic Christmas Day climatology.

Normals 1991-2020
High: 35.6
Low: 23.1
Mean: 26.8
Precipitation: 0.10″
Snowfall: 0.1″

1878-2020 Averages
High: 36.4
Low: 23.5
Mean: 30.1
Precipitation: 0.08″
Snowfall: 0.3″

First, let’s take a look at the temperature breakdowns for the holiday.

Top 10 Coldest Highs
1. 1983: 1
2. 1878: 10
3. 1924: 11
4. 1980: 15
5. 1902: 16
6. 1985: 17
7. 2020: 18
8. 1884, 2000: 19
9. 1899, 1906, 1914:20
10. 1950, 1968: 22

Top 10 Coldest Lows
1. 1983: -12
2. 1980: -5
3. 1935: -4
4. 1924: -3
5. 1878: -2
6. 2004: -1
7. 1985: 1
8. 2000: 2
9. 1884: 4
10. 1914, 1999: 7

Top 10 Warmest Highs
1. 1893: 64
2. 1982: 63
3. 1932, 1940: 62
4. 1889: 60
5. 1964: 58
6. 1895, 1955: 57
7. 2019: 56
8. 1891: 55
9. 1936, 2015: 53
10. 1888, 1915, 1987: 52

Top 10 Warmest Lows
1. 1889, 1982: 55
2. 1895: 52
3. 1893: 49
4. 1891: 45
5. 2015: 43
6. 1932, 1940: 40
7. 1888, 1964, 1973: 39
8. 1987: 38
9. 1922, 1941, 2009, 2016: 37
10. 1936, 1972: 36

Number of Christmases with High Temperature
Less than 10: 1
10-19: 8
20-29: 24
30-39: 54
40-49: 36
50-59: 12
60 or Higher: 5

Number of Christmases with Low Temperature
Less than 0: 6
0-9: 7
10-19: 36
20-29: 47
30-39: 38
40-49: 5
50 or Higher: 4



Now let’s example precipitation and snowfall records.

Top 10 Wettest
1. 2009: 0.79″
2. 1944: 0.77″
3. 1926: 0.69″
4. 1951: 0.58″
5. 2006: 0.57″
6. 1945: 0.54″
7. 1957: 0.52″
8. 1987, 2005: 0.51″
9. 1915: 0.48″
10. 1909: 0.47″

Number of Christmases with Precipitation Amount
0.00″: 46
Trace: 27
0.01″-0.24″: 55
0.25″-0.49″: 6
0.50″-0.74″: 7
0.75″-0.99″: 2
1.00″ or More: 0

Top 10 Snowiest
1. 1890: 7.0″
2. 1909: 5.7″
3. 1950: 3.0″
4. 1917: 2.5″
5. 1969: 2.3″
6. 1884: 2.2″
7. 1976: 1.9″
8. 1880: 1.8″
9. 1935: 1.3″
10. 1944: 1.2″

Most Snow on the Ground (Since 1940)
1. 1960: 9″
2. 1961, 1963, 1989, 1995: 4″
3. 1969, 1980, 2004: 3″
4. 1947, 1950, 2000: 2″
5. 1944, 1945, 1951, 1956, 1962, 1990, 1992, 1993, 2010, 2017: 1″

Number of Christmases with Snowfall Amount
0.0″: 75
Trace: 23
0.1″-0.4″: 20
0.5″-0.9″: 9
1″-2.9″: 7
3″ or More: 3



Snowiest Christmas Eve in History

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Snowiest Christmas Eve in history Columbus, Ohio

White Christmases are pretty rare in the Columbus, Ohio area. An inch or more has fallen on the date only 11 times since 1878. An official White Christmas, however, is defined as having 1″ or more snow on the ground, not necessarily falling on the day itself. That has only happened 21 times since 1939, with only 4 of those times coming since 2000. So these white holidays are relatively rare.

A white Christmas Eve has been even less likely. 1″ or more has been on the ground on December 24th just 16 times since 1939.

Accumulating snow is not all that rare for Christmas Eve. It’s occurred 31 times since 1878, or about once every 4-5 years. So not exactly an annual occurrence, but it happens at least a few times per decade. However, most of those instances were less than 1″ of snow- in fact, 27 of the 31 times were less than 1″. That means 1″ or more of snow has fallen on Christmas Eve just 4 times in the last 142 years, a very rare event indeed.

The largest Christmas Eve snowfall until this year was just 2.7″ in 1980. This year’s Christmas Eve snowstorm brought anywhere from 2″-8″ across the Columbus metro area. In Franklin County, 3″-5″ was common. Officially, the airport received 3.4″ on the 24th, which counts as the largest Christmas Eve snowstorm in Columbus history. Snow was still falling lightly Christmas day, so a little more could be added to the final storm total, but another official White Christmas has gone into the books.

To see snowfall reports across the area, check out this map:
https://www.weather.gov/source/crh/snowmap.html?zoom=8&lat=39.5&lon=-82.33&hr=48

And to view other local December and winter weather records, follow the links below.
December Weather Records
Winter Season Records
Current weather and forecasts can be found here: Wilmington National Weather Service