What is a White Christmas?

Let's be perfectly honest, a White Christmas, really, is a state of mind. But there are also meteorological definitions for it, too.

According to the US National Climatic Data Center, a White Christmas is "a snow depth of at least 1 inch on Christmas morning." Important to note that it's a snow depth, not necessarily new snow. That means whatever is already on the ground counts! We picked up about 1/2" of new snow overnight, (that makes Santa very happy), but it just adds to the inch we already had on the surface... and that means we have a White Christmas.

This is Columbus' first White Christmas since 2004!

Not everyone has the same definition, though. In the United Kingdom, the Met Office defines a White Christmas as "a single snow flake (perhaps amongst a shower of rain and snow mixed) to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25 December." Remember that Britain's climate is very different from ours...