Weather Extremes On Christmas Day

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C​hristmas weather can be much more than hoping for an inch of snow on the ground. Over the years, some extreme warmth, cold, snowfall, even severe weather has happened on the holiday.

Below, we take a closer look at some of these extreme weather conditions recorded on Christmas in each region of the U.S., followed by some other eye-popping Christmas weather.

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(​MORE: White Christmas Forecast | Strangest White Christmases)

Northeast

Many cities in the Northeast have recorded subzero temperatures on Christmas. Several locations set record lows and record-cold highs in 1980, including Burlington, Vermont, which only saw a high of 5 degrees below zero. New York City saw temperatures drop to 1 degree below zero in 1980.

Another very cold December 25, which remains the record-coldest Christmas for several locations in the Northeast, is 1983. Pittsburgh recorded a low of 12 degrees below zero on Christmas 1983. Although the cold-temperature records in Boston were set in the 1800s, a low of 7 degrees below zero was observed in 1980 while the high in 1983 was only 10 degrees.

As the table above shows, this century has delivered snowiest Christmas Days in Boston, Buffalo and Pittsburgh. However, snowiest Christmas records in both New York City and Philadelphia have stood for over 100 years, since William Howard Taft was President.

M​ore recently, warmest Christmas records have fallen from northern New England to the mid-Atlantic states. Burlington, Vermont, New York and Philadelphia have each soared into the 60s on Christmas within the last 10 years.

South

The South, of course, has also seen warm Christmases. Tampa and Miami both recorded highs in the mid-80s on Christmas 2016. Dallas (82 degrees) and Nashville (76 degrees) set daily record highs in 2021.

Numerous cities set records for the warmest Christmas in 2015. This includes Atlanta, Charleston, South Carolina, Orlando, New Orleans and Houston.

(Further beef up your forecast with our detailed, hour-by-hour breakdown for the next 8 days – only available on our Premium Pro experience.)

It has also been cold in the South on Christmas, particularly in the 1980s. The worst of these cold waves was in 1983, when most of the region's cold-temperature records for Christmas were set, as you can see in the table above.

Nashville plunged to 5 degrees below zero while Memphis and Atlanta saw the temperature drop to 0 degrees. Christmas Day 1983 highs only managed to get in the teens in Raleigh, upper 20s in Houston and New Orleans, and upper 30s in Tampa.

B​ut a Christmas 1989 cold outbreak also smashed records in the South, including an all-time record in Wilmington, North Carolina (0 degrees) and a daily record low in Miami (30 degrees).

Snow has been measured on Christmas in parts of the South, including the Southeast during that 1989 cold snap, which we discuss in our strangest white Christmas writeup.

Both Atlanta (1.3 inches) and Raleigh (0.4 inches) recorded snow in 2010 while Dallas measured 0.4 inches of snow in 2012. Memphis saw 3.5 inches of snow in 1913, and Nashville recorded 2.4 inches in 1969.

Midwest

Brutally cold conditions occur at times in the Plains and Midwest. The coldest Christmas in Minneapolis was in 1879, when a low of 39 degrees below zero occurred, and Bismarck recorded a low of 35 below zero in 1884.

The Christmas 1983 cold wave also affected the nation's mid-section, when lows dropped below zero for most of the region. Omaha, Nebraska, plunged to 17 below zero, and St. Louis saw a low of 13 degrees below zero. Chicago only managed a high of 5 below zero that frigid Christmas.

In 2016, Bismarck picked up just under a foot of snow on Christmas. The snowiest Christmas in Cleveland was 2002, when 10.2 inches of snow fell. In 2009, Kansas City saw 3.3 inches of snow while Omaha received 5.8 inches.

There have also been some strangely warm Midwest Christmases recently. As you can see in the table above, the Twin Cities soared into the mid-50s in 2023 and Cincinnati almost hit 70 degrees in 2021.

West

Given the wide range of elevations and climate influences, the West has experienced a variety of weather conditions on Christmas.

Several cities recorded their warmest Christmas in 1980, including Los Angeles (85 degrees), Phoenix (78 degrees), Portland, Oregon (64 degrees) and Seattle (60 degrees).

Several locations have also seen lows drop below zero, including Denver, Billings, Montana, Salt Lake City and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The high temperature in Billings in 1996 was only 6 degrees below zero.

As expected, the higher elevations have seen snowfall on Christmas. Salt Lake City recorded 9 inches of snow in 1916 while Denver measured 7.4 inches in 2007.

Unsurprisingly, the coldest conditions on Christmas in the U.S. have been observed in Alaska. The coldest Christmas on record in Fairbanks and Anchorage happened in 1961. The high that year in Fairbanks was only 50 degrees below zero, and Anchorage saw a low of 25 degrees below zero.

Honolulu, Hawaii's warmest Christmas was in 1945, when a high of 87 was recorded. The coldest low temperature in Honolulu on Christmas was 59 degrees in 1978.

L​ower 48 Temperature Extremes

A​ccording to weather historian Christopher Burt, the coldest Christmas Day temperature on record in the continental U.S. was 53 degrees below zero at both Drewsey and Riverside, Oregon in 1924.

B​urt says the hottest reliable Christmas Day temperature in the U.S. is 93 degrees at Rio Grande Village, Texas, in 2021 and also in La Pryor, Texas in 1955.

S​evere Weather

S​adly, Christmas isn't immune from severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.

T​he largest Christmas Day tornado outbreak on record happened in 2012, when 30 tornadoes were spawned across the South from eastern Texas to Alabama.

That included a pair of EF3 tornadoes near Pennington, Texas, and in Pearl River County, Mississippi. Mobile, Alabama, was struck by tornadoes on Christmas Day and also five days before Christmas 2012.

O​ther recent Christmas Day tornadoes occurred in Florida in 2006, in the Deep South in 2015 and in western Kansas in 2016. The most recent Christmas tornado, oddly enough, was on Christmas night 2019 in Ventura County, California.

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