Weather forecasters are calling for snow in southern Maine between now and Christmas Day, but that’s no guarantee that the region’s children will be making holiday snowmen after opening their presents. It could be southern Maine’s first green Christmas since 2006.
“We will probably see snow. Whether it’s accumulating snow or not remains to be seen,” Andy Pohl, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Gray, said Tuesday night. He added that at most two inches of snow will fall Wednesday and through the night before temperatures warm to the high 30s on Thursday.
According to National Weather Service records, Portland had a trace of snow on the ground on Christmas Day in 2009, eight inches in 2007, and none in 2006. Records for 2008 were unavailable.
Portland has received snowfall on only 33 percent of Christmas Days in the last 128 years, Pohl said, citing National Weather Service records that date back to 1882. However, there is at least one inch of snow on the ground in Portland on 61 percent of Christmases.
Portland’s record for snowfall on Christmas Day is 12.5 inches in 2002. The city’s record for snow on the ground on Christmas Day is 39 inches in 1970.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story