Forecasters: White Christmas in Great Lakes, mountains
 |
Jaylen Masters enjoys playing in the snow Friday at Lake Reba, in Richmond, Kentucky.
Story Tools
|
(CNN) -- Americans likely will have a white Christmas this year in the Great Lakes region, the Rocky Mountains and high elevations along the West Coast, forecasters said Sunday.
"You'll probably see some lake-effect snows across Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and upstate New York," said CNN Meteorologist Rob Marciano. "On the West Coast, we have a front coming through that will bring rain at lower altitudes and snow at higher elevations."
Denver, Colorado, will probably be dry on Christmas Day, Marciano said, and the U.S. East Coast will likely be wet due to a front that's expected to pass through the region beginning Christmas Eve.
"On Christmas Day it will feel cool enough to feel like Christmas, but I'm not promising a white Christmas by any means across the East Coast," he said.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Michael Eckert said computer forecasting models were disagreeing about the December 25 outlook, but the West Coast mountain ranges, the Rocky Mountains and the North Central United States "are pretty much guaranteed a white Christmas" this year.
"Yeah, the Cascade Mountains, the Sierras, the Bitterroots will probably get at least six inches," Eckert said. "That's normal for this time of year."
Although some of the forecasting models disagree, Eckert said, "there's a good chance for a snow storm around the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions on Christmas Day." But he added that it was still too early to predict snowfall amounts for those areas.
"It will be dry and relatively mild on Christmas in the Central Southern Plains and the desert Southwest," Eckert said. "In the Southeastern U.S. it will be dry and relatively mild."
"Pretty seasonal conditions for this time of year," he said.
