NEW YORK, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- If you're dreaming of a white Christmas anywhere in the United States this year, you are in better luck than last year, despite a forecast for abnormally warm Christmas Day temperatures, which may bring more rain and spring-like thunderstorms than snow over the next few days, The New York Times on Monday cited weather forecasters.
The National Weather Service officially considers a location to have had a white Christmas if there is one inch of snow already on the ground or if new snow of at least an inch falls on Christmas Day.
The snow-cover forecast is created from the Snow Data Assimilation System, which is a computer model from the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"This year is beginning to be an interesting snow season," Shawn Carter with the National Weather Service was quoted as saying. There's "a pretty good chance" that the country will see more white Christmases overall this year than last year, he said.
Many of the areas likely to have snow this year historically have had the highest probability of an inch of snow on Christmas, added the report.
