As the Earth warms due to human-caused climate change, the likelihood of experiencing snowfall during Christmas has become increasingly diminished, according to recent studies and reports.
A 2021 report from Climate Central, an American non-profit science and communications organization, stated, "With a warmer climate, more winter precipitation is likely to fall as rain rather than snow in many parts of the world. Climate change threatens symbols of the holiday season—from Christmas tree growth and winter entertainment to warm drinks and Arctic wildlife."
The effects extend beyond holiday traditions. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notes that reduced snowfall and diminished snow cover not only impact seasonal festivities but can also affect water supplies, transportation, travel, and entertainment for millions of people.
Reports indicate that as the Earth warms, snow is generally becoming less prevalent. Between 1972 and 2020, the average area of snow-covered land in North America decreased by approximately 1,870 square miles per year, an area roughly equivalent to the size of Delaware, according to the Rutgers University’s Global Snow Lab.
In the United States, climate change is already impacting the amount of snow that falls across the country. Significant declines have been reported in several key metrics of snowfall: snowfall amounts, snow cover, and snowpack.
“What we know about winter temperature trends is that winters are warming faster across most of the United States,” said Elizabeth Burakowski, an assistant professor of geosciences at the University of New South Wales. “New England and the Upper Midwest are hotspots for winter warming. We’ve observed some of the fastest winter warming trends in Burlington, Vermont, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Concord, New Hampshire.”
“Average winter temperatures, in particular, have been rising more rapidly than temperatures in other seasons, especially in the Northeast, where the American Christmas concept developed in the 1800s,” Dagomar DeGroot, a professor of environmental history at Georgetown University, told USA Today. “Severely colder temperatures were more common in the region during the mid-1800s when the Little Ice Age began to wane. The ideal of a white Christmas in American culture may have been influenced by the average snowfall experienced in the 1800s or may have originated from a period of particularly extreme winter weather.”
“Elements of the white Christmas ideal in American culture may have been influenced by the average snowfall people experienced in the 19th century or could have originated from a period of extreme winter weather,” DeGroot explained.
At the same time, average winter snow cover doesn’t seem to have declined as significantly as research from the 19th century would suggest, DeGroot noted. “In fact, some regions of the United States, such as the Great Lakes area, appear to be experiencing more snowfall now than they did in the past.”
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, even in a world that is approximately 2.7 degrees warmer than the average temperature recorded in the late 19th century, global snowfall is expected to decline by only about 5%.
