White Christmas In MA: More Than Just A Dream?

BOSTON — If you're dreaming of a white Christmas in Massachusetts, you might be disappointed.

Forecasters have delved into historical records to figure out where snow is likely to fall on the holiday and, though it's certainly possible, eastern Massachusetts is not expected to be a winter wonderland. In the western part of the state, though, chances of a White Christmas are much better.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration built an interactive map to figure out which U.S. areas will have the most seasonal Christmas, based on climatological measurements over the last three decades.

NOAA data suggests there's just an 19 percent chance that snow will fall on Christmas Day on the Boston Common, and the odds are not much better in Bristol and Plymouth counties. But the farther west you live, the better the chances of seeing measurable snow: a 41 percent chance in Natick, a 43 percent chance in Worcester and — not surprisingly — upwards of 70 percent in the Berkshires.

AccuWeather's meteorologists are more optimistic, giving eastern Massachusetts a better chance at seeing some flakes, somewhere between 25 and 50 percent. .

AccuWeather says snow is more likely in the West, the Great Plains and the Midwest, but the National Weather Service won't give its prediction until much closer to the big day.

The white Christmas ideal in the United States comes from American composer Irving Berlin's classic, "White Christmas," recorded by Bing Crosby and others. The composer wrote the song while staying at an inn in southern California in 1940 and imagining the winters from his childhood in New York.