NWS Billings Office Says Our Chance of a White Christmas Is...

I'm one of those people that doesn't particularly love winter. I know, I know... it's Montana and around here we get winter. I've lived here for most of my life and I still haven't learned how to enjoy the snow. Maybe if I was an avid skier or snowboarder, or if I had a trailer full of snowmobiles, I'd enjoy the white stuff more?

Someday, I hope to celebrate Christmas somewhere with palm trees.

Until that day comes, I'll settle for another wintery Christmas in Montana. And if it's going to be wintery, I suppose it will be nice to have some snow on the ground on December 25th. So what are the odds? The crew at the National Weather Service in Billings shared some interesting data on social media today. Let's take a look at the numbers.

There's a 48% chance of a white Christmas in Billings.

The NWS says since they first began keeping data in 1934, Billings has had a white Christmas 42 times out of 87 years, or 48%. The warmest record temp on December 25 was 56 degrees in 2005 and the record low was -21 on Christmas Day in 1983. Our normal high/low for late December is 35/18.

Biggest Christmas snowstorms in recent years.

Christmas 1965 saw 4.5 inches of fresh snowfall in Billings. In 2018 it snowed 2.2 inches on Christmas and we got 1.9 inches in 2016. As for total snow on the ground on December 25th, it could be tough to beat the 9" records that occurred in the winters of 1984 and 1976.

Photo by Scott Annandale

Your odds for a white Christmas climb dramatically in western Montana.

Last year, Money, Inc. declared Great Falls the snowiest city in Montana. The Electric City averages 63.5 inches of snow annually. Their report made me scratch my head for a moment, because the town of West Yellowstone, MT receives WAY more snow, to the tune of 166 inches annually.

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.