Little chance of Christmas snow in Seattle in ‘terrifying dull’ run of weather

While threats of snow persisted through November — including a light dusting shortly after Thanksgiving — the chances of a white Christmas in the Seattle area aren’t looking particularly promising.

Seattle winter could be much snowier than usual

According to the latest data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there’s between a zero and 10 percent chance the Puget Sound region will see snow by Christmas.

That’s consistent up and down the West Coast, while lowland areas of central and eastern Washington like Wenatchee and Spokane are far more likely to get at least some snowfall for the holidays (between 51 and 75 percent depending on where you are).

Backing this up is a recent blog post from University of Washington professor of atmospheric sciences Cliff Mass, who labels this “the most boring late fall in years” from a weather perspective.

“November and December of this year is proving to be terrifyingly dull,” he noted. “Major storms? Intense atmospheric rivers? Forget it.”

To top it all off, Mass also points out that snowpack in the mountains “is well below normal — roughly one-third of what we usually have this time of year.”

Check Seattle area weather

This is all despite the fact that December is the coldest month in the Seattle area on average, and boasts three out of the city’s 10 snowiest days on record. That being so, according to data from the Seattle Weather Blog, the city also “hasn’t seen a top-ten snowfall since the infamous snowstorms of November 1985.”

Additionally, our run of boring weather runs counter to early projections that Seattle was poised for what Mass said could be “a very active winter.” Whether that holds by the time winter begins on Dec. 21 remains to be seen, but we at least know snow isn’t anywhere near the horizon in Western Washington.

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