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
