Ten years ago you may remember Portland and much of Maine had a major snowstorm in the closing hours of Christmas.  By the time the snow stopped on the 26th over a foot of snow had fallen in the Forest City.   While that was certainly the biggest Christmas snowstorm it did not set a record for the most snow on the ground on Christmas, that honor is reserved for Christmas 1970 when 39 inches of the white stuff was measured.  That year would go down as one of the snowiest on records before it all came to end later that spring.   This year, our ground is bare rather unusual for this late in December.  We only have a 17% chance of having a "brown" Christmas here much of southern Maine. Those chances rapidly increase as you go north and away from the water and decrease across southern York county.  

This year, I am watching a small and quick hitting storm that will move east from the Ohio valley and impact southern New England and parts of our area with a bit of Christmas snow.  Although only two days away, the exact track of the system is still slightly in question.  The heaviest of the snow will certainly be to our south, but part of York and southern Cumberland counties could see enough snow to whiten the ground late Christmas eve and early Christmas morning.  Whatever happens the snow will be over by mid-morning leaving clearing skies and cold temperatures.

Next storm

Then our sites turn to another system for Wednesday night and Thursday.  This system looks stronger but also milder so while the mountains should see snow, the coast plain may have a changeover to rain or mixed precipitation.   After that storm departs we will turn colder and dry for a few days before another storm threatens for the end of the year.