White Christmas forecast: Where snow, ice is expected

(NEW YORK) — Nine states from Virginia to Maine are under snow alerts on Christmas Eve morning as a band of snow moves through the Northeast, bringing treacherous driving conditions.

A white Christmas?

The National Weather Service considers it a white Christmas if there’s 1 inch or more of snow on the ground at 7 a.m. on Christmas morning.

Boston is getting its first white Christmas in five years and New York City could see its first white Christmas in 15 years.

Christmas Eve forecast

On Christmas Eve morning, the heaviest snow is hitting upstate New York and northern New England where locally more than 1 foot of snow is possible.

A coating to 1 inch of snow is possible along Interstate 95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston on Tuesday morning.

A winter weather advisory has been issued for DC and Philadelphia due to the dangerous combination of a glaze of ice with a potential coating of snow.

By Tuesday afternoon, the snow will end and the sun will come out in the Northeast, ushering in a dry Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day morning.

Meanwhile, a powerful storm system in the Pacific Ocean is producing extreme waves that are only seen every few years on the West Coast.

Waves could reach 60 feet in Northern California and southern Oregon and could reach 25 feet in Southern California on Tuesday morning.

This storm is bringing gusty winds, heavy rain and thunderstorms with lightning to Northern California, including the San Francisco Bay area.

Some of the rain could reach Southern California, including Los Angeles, by the evening.

Christmas Day forecast

On Christmas Day, temperatures will reach 35 degrees in New York City, 39 degrees in Chicago, 53 in Raleigh, North Carolina, and 59 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Temperatures will be slightly below normal in the Northeast and slightly above normal in the Midwest.

Showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast for Christmas Day from Texas to Mississippi to Tennessee.

Six to 12 inches of snow is forecast for the higher elevations in the Rocky Mountains, from Taos, New Mexico, to Big Sky, Montana.

It’ll be a rainy Christmas afternoon in Oregon and Washington, with snow in the Cascade mountain range.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.