What will the weather be like in Wisconsin on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?

If you were dreaming of a white Christmas, you may be out of luck if you live in southern Wisconsin.

A mix of rain and snow is likely Monday morning, mostly north of Interstate 94 between Milwaukee and Madison.

But that’s the last chance for any more snow before Christmas.

“At this point, it looks like any accumulating snow is probably going to be more over central Wisconsin,” National Weather Service meteorologist JJ Wood said.

Central and northern Wisconsin already have more snow on the ground, he said, and warm temperatures might not melt all of it before Christmas.

“The northern parts still got a fair amount, so they’ll probably still hang onto their snow cover,” Wood said.

But “down in the southern third of the state, there’s probably not going to be much of any snow left” by Christmas, he said.

Plus, Milwaukee has a 20% chance of light rain between noon on Dec. 24 Eve and overnight on Dec. 25 – not a good sign for a white Christmas.

Temperatures will be mild for Christmas week

Even if more snow falls early this week, warm temperatures could quickly melt it.

Christmas Eve in Milwaukee should hit a high near 42 degrees, and 44 degrees on Christmas Day. Temperatures on Dec. 25 will reach 38 degrees in Green Bay and 42 degrees in La Crosse.

Those temperatures are quite a bit higher than normal. The typical high is 34 degrees on Dec. 24 and 25 in Milwaukee.

The warmup should continue past Christmas into next weekend, though temperatures won’t quite hit the 40s again.

“They’ll still be well into the 30s, which is still above normal for this time of the year,” Wood said.

How common is a white Christmas in Wisconsin?

The NWS considers Dec. 25 a “white Christmas” when there’s at least one inch of snow on the ground at 7 a.m. It could be actively snowing, or snow could already be on the ground.

In Milwaukee, the most snowfall recorded on Dec. 25 was 6 inches in 1909. The most snow on the ground, or snow depth, reached 25 inches in 2000, according to NWS data.

Since the NWS began keeping records in 1871, Milwaukee has recorded measurable snow 35 times on Dec. 25, or 22% of the time. When including trace amounts of snow, it goes up to 50%.

It hasn’t snowed on Christmas Day in Milwaukee since 2018. Last year, there was an inch of snow on the ground. In 2023, 2021, 2020 and 2019, there was no measurable snow outside.

Hope Karnopp can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What will the weather be like in Wisconsin on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?

Reporting by Hope Karnopp, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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