It's that time of year when travelers around the U.S. are beginning to dream of a white Christmas, and if you're wondering what your chances are, you're in luck. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has taken three decades of climatological measurements and combined them into a map showing the historical probability of a white Christmas across the United States.
According to the NOAA data, you're almost guaranteed a white Christmas at these 10 destinations, each with a historical probability of more than 90 percent.
Historical probability of a white Christmas — Photo courtesy of NOAA Climate.gov NCDC
1. North Pole, Alaska - There's a 100 percent chance of snow on the ground on Christmas morning, and visitors to this aptly named town will wake to an average of 12 inches.
2. Crater Lake, Ore. - Headquarters at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon sees an average of 55 inches of snow on the ground on Christmas morning, with a good chance for new snowfall on the day.
3. Yellowstone National Park - Yellowstone is stunning in the winter, especially in the area surrounding Old Faithful, where you can expect an average of 21 inches of snow on the ground (with a 100 percent chance of some snow cover).
4. Winthrop, Wash. - The former mining community of Winthrop doesn't always have a white Christmas, but there's been snow on the ground on 95 percent of Christmas mornings between 1981 and 2010. There's a good chance there'll be snow in 2018.
5. Aspen, Colo. - Aspen has a 100 percent chance of having snow on the ground for Christmas (an average of 16 inches).
6. Ketchum, Idaho - The ski town of Ketchum enjoys a white Christmas 97 percent of the time, with an average 30 percent chance of around two inches of fresh snowfall on the holiday.
7. Mount Washington, N.H. - For a New England white Christmas, give Mount Washington in the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire a try. Historically, the area sees snow on the ground on Christmas Day on 94 percent of Christmases.
8. Whitefish, Mont. - The town of Whitefish has had a white Christmas 92 percent of the time in the past.
9. Duluth, Minn. - Also with a 92 percent historical white Christmas average is Duluth, a charming college town on the westernmost edge of the Great Lakes.
10. Truckee, Calif. - The Lake Tahoe town of Truckee enjoys snow on nine out of 10 Christmases, historically, and it snows on one out of every four.
More of a big city person? The major metro area in the Lower 48 with the highest probability of a white Christmas is Minneapolis.
