Will we have a white Christmas this year?

The true definition of a white Christmas is an inch or more of snow on the ground by Christmas morning.

You may think in the Miami Valley — which can feature cold and snowy winters — that a white Christmas would be common, but looking at the numbers, it isn’t.

>>County-by-county weather 

The most recent white Christmas was last year when there was about 2 inches of snow on the ground Christmas morning.

Christmas morning in 2010 was another year we got 2 inches of snow.

Those were the only two white Christmas holidays between 2008 and 2018 in the Miami Valley.

In 2012, Dayton came close with a winter snowstorm that dropped 7 inches of snow the day after Christmas.

RELATED: Live Doppler 7 HD Interactive Radar

Since 1943, when snow depth records began, a white Christmas has occurred 22 times. If you look at the last climatological period between 1981 and 2010, it has occurred nine times.

That means there is about a 30 percent chance the area could have a white Christmas. From 1893-2016, the most snow that has ever fallen on Christmas Day was 5.2 inches, which fell in 1909.

When it comes to a cold Christmas, from 1893-2016 the coldest Christmas day on record is minus 1 in 1983. The warmest was 54 degrees in 1895.

There are two systems coming through before Christmas.

Currently, it looks like a mainly rain event, but we will watch the temperatures at night to see if any mixing occurs. Your Storm Center 7 team will have updates.

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