A Whatcom white Christmas? Familiar winter pattern could bring lowland snow this week
Snow is possible in the Whatcom County lowlands this week as arctic air breezes in from the Fraser River Valley of British Columbia, making a white Christmas a possibility.
That dry “Fraser outflow” from the northeast will mix with wet storms approaching Western Washington from the southwest, said Dustin Guy at the National Weather Service in Seattle.
“There’s some opportunity, possibly Monday,” Guy told The Bellingham Herald.
“We’re looking at some Fraser outflow Sunday, Sunday night, so there’s a chance of some flakes flying — but not any accumulation to speak of,” he said.
But at Environment Canada, meteorologists were calling for periods of snow from Tuesday night into Thursday for the Abbotsford, B.C., area just across the U.S.-Canada border from Lynden and Sumas.
Forecast for later in the week — specifically Christmas — was more uncertain, Guy said.
Fraser winds tend to have a drying effect so significant moisture is required to produce heavier lowland snow, Guy said.
“Nothing is rally set in stone. It’s a matter of timing. It’s going to be day to day,” he said.
Temperatures will turn colder, with daytime highs around 40 and overnight lows at freezing or below.
But a white Christmas is guaranteed at the Mt. Baker Ski Area, several feet of snow have fallen over the past week and a certain Kris Kringle might arrive Sunday, Dec. 19.
“Little elves have hinted that we might have a special visitor,” the ski area said at its website.
Elsewhere in Washington, expectations of a white Christmas are more of a crapshoot.
Online betting service U.S. Bookies was giving 50-1 odds that Seattle would have a traditional white Christmas, according to Dec. 7 press release.
But the private weather forecasting service AccuWeather was giving Western Washington a better line, with a 25% to 50% chance of seeing snowflakes on the holiday.
U.S. meteorologists define a “white Christmas” as a minimum of 1 inch of snow on the ground on Dec. 25.
