White Christmas?

[Lindaloo]

Since some believe that snow has something to do with hurricane season, please provide me some scientific proof? That way I will know 100% whether I want snow or not this year.

I am not from Louisiana, so please fill me in on the cajun folklore.

No, Jagno mentioned the folklore. I just agreed with her. No one ever said it was scientific proof. I just mentioned i barely had any snow that christmas day and didn't have any damage from either hurricane. I was right smack dab in the middle of them. I was just having a little fun here not knowing i had to provide scientific facts on what i was saying.

You took what I said wrong, all wrong. I was only saying that I needed some scientific proof because right now I want snow. If it is facts, then I am running from snow cuz I do not want another hurricane. lol. As to the folklore, I believe in that stuff and wanted to know what it was because I have no idea what it means.

[cctxhurricanewatcher]

I am not sure a freak winter weather event and a hurricane strike the following summer go hand in hand. In 04 as you all know the Coastal Bend got the historic Christmas snowstorm of recorded weather history. But in 2005 we escaped all tropical activety. In 1983 and 1989. we had historic cold snaps and ditto.

That may not quite be true in your neck of the woods. But hurricane landfalls are a bit more narrow than the path of winter storms. We all got winter here on the coast, but you guys escaped the tropical stuff by a slim margin. Meanwhile, up on the southeast Texas coast:

2005 - Rita
1989 - Allison, Chantal, Jerry
1983 - Alicia

(And let it be noted -- that Tropical Storm Allison was bad too...even if many of us only remember the one in 2001)

I said before a season. Those winter events that hit Texas in 83 and 89, were AFTER hurricane season for those two years.

[weatherrabbit_tx]

feb. 1960 snowfall, Hurricane carla 1961...1973 snowfall, 1973 T.S delia, and it snowed jan. 1982 then alicia in aug. 1983 but its still in speculation, but somewhere there is a connection somehow

[Regit]

Well if there is a connection it would probably have to do with El Nino cycles. I guess it's plausible that a certain stage of the cycle could increase the chances for both snowfall and hurricanes in the same year.

This would be more likely that hurricanes tend to precede snowfall, as those events would be only about 3 months apart.

[Johnny]

How about this...have most of the measurable snowfalls in the deep south happened during an el nino winter season?

[Astro_man92]

Well El nino is supposed to increase the instability of the air over the atlantic and over north america, right? So maybe, the result of the snow is because of the instability created, which is carried over to the hurricane season.

or is it that i have no idea what i'm talking about?

[Lindaloo]

Well if there is a connection it would probably have to do with El Nino cycles. I guess it's plausible that a certain stage of the cycle could increase the chances for both snowfall and hurricanes in the same year.

This would be more likely that hurricanes tend to precede snowfall, as those events would be only about 3 months apart.

Well in that case, I do not want snow.

[cajungal]

Snow fell in Galveston and covered the beaches the winter of 1901. The year before was the 1900 Galveston Hurricane that killed over 8, 000 people. I know this because I have the book Isaac's Storm. I had a bad feeling when I saw the beautiful snow falling here on Christmas Day. I just had an eerie feeling that the 2005 Hurricane season was going to be a bad one.

[wx247]

After I originally posted in this topic I thought of something else.

Back in the winter of 2002-2003, we had our 3rd snowiest winter all time. That May we had two tornado outbreaks in the course of a month. I wonder if it does have something to do with the overall weather patterns of those years??!!??

[Janie2006]

Interesting questions. Who knows, there could possibly be a teleconnection between the two events at some level.

Meanwhile, chances of a white christmas here hover somewhere between 0 and .001% Not an impossibility, but very rare.

[Ptarmigan]

feb. 1960 snowfall, Hurricane carla 1961...1973 snowfall, 1973 T.S delia, and it snowed jan. 1982 then alicia in aug. 1983 but its still in speculation, but somewhere there is a connection somehow

I used a statistic program for Houston snow and found less snow falls in El Nino years for Houston. I did it going back to 1870. I found less snow fall amount average in El Nino years, despite being cooler and wetter. The highest average snowfall falls in neutral years. However, there seem to be more ice storms in El Nino years.

[GalvestonDuck]

Kelly and CC -- duh, you're right. I tend to forget that winter begins in one calendar year and ends the next, especially now that I live down south here where winter only lasts for a mere 3 days or so.

I still can't believe I'm wearing short-sleeved shirts in December.

[Lindaloo]

Kelly and CC -- duh, you're right. I tend to forget that winter begins in one calendar year and ends the next, especially now that I live down south here where winter only lasts for a mere 3 days or so.

I still can't believe I'm wearing short-sleeved shirts in December.

It really does not matter either way, you know?

[GalvestonDuck]

True -- I'll be in sweaters in a week!

[Scott Patterson]

There's always a White Christmas here. Anyone whom wants to can come shovel all the white Christmas they want to off my driveway. Free of charge!

[cheezyWXguy]

Wow...check this out...this would put most of texas below freezing with precipitation, with the 540 line even at houston!

http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod ... _312.shtml

[JonathanBelles]

lucky texans!

[Extremeweatherguy]

Wow...check this out...this would put most of texas below freezing with precipitation, with the 540 line even at houston!

http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod ... _312.shtml

yeah, I just saw that too! It would be crazy if it played out!

[HarlequinBoy]

Personally, I'd be just as happy to see snow after Christmas as much as I would on Christmas. Anytime I get any wintry weather I'm happy, lol!

Last winter we ended up with a total over just over 4.5 inches of snow/sleet.

We had about 3.5 inches on February 10 and then an inch of sleet on February 18.

I was quite happy. I didn't get out of school though, lol.. the snow on Friday the 10th started between 1 and 2 and by the time it really started sticking we were already out.

And the 18th was a Saturday. The snow/sleet stuck around for about 2 or 3 days after the 10th and 3-4 days after the 18th.

[PTrackerLA]

That would certainly make for an interesting Christmas day around here. Our local met commented about this possibility on his blog yesterday and the GFS continues to show something like this today. Still a long ways out but I'm hoping the cold weather returns soon, it feels like spring right now.