JACKSON, Miss. -- Bing Crosby croons he's dreaming of a white Christmas in 1954 holiday classic with the same name. It's ironic as he's sitting at a toasty Vermont hotel with nary a flurry in sight. Spoiler alert: He gets his wish.
Winter has a whole aesthetic. We love the look of cozy fires and crisp, clean snow. You might find yourself daydreaming of kissing your love among a romantic swirl of fluffy flakes or engaging in Instagram-worthy fun with the kids building snowmen and making snow angels. (Sense a trend?) But if you're in Mississippi, well, make like Elsa and let it go.
Getting snow on Christmas Day isn't impossible. It's just not likely.
Did you know that there has to be an inch of snow on the ground for it to count as a white Christmas? Records spanning more than a century show about seven years with snow, sleet or ice on the day of Christmas for Jackson and central Mississippi. Of those, only three years would make the cut.
Getting ready for Christmas? Here's your Mississippi holiday season weather forecast
According to the National Weather Service, some parts of central Mississippi last saw light flurries on Christmas Day in 2010.
Before that, the closest we got to yuletide snowball fights was more like a visit from Jack Frost than the Snow Miser for some parts of the state. In 1998, an ice storm blanketed the region from Dec. 22-25, causing power outages along and north of I-20. It also crimped travel across the area.
In 1963, a snow storm slammed north Mississippi and brought a hard freeze to the central region Dec. 20 and 22. Jackson mostly saw freezing rain with a smattering of snow, though recorded depths reached up to 7 inches at Yazoo City. Record cold down to single digits in some areas kept ice and snow on the ground for longer, and Lake Hazle reportedly froze over.
Snow on the holiday is relatively rare in Mississippi, though wintry weather is possible through December. In 2017, for example, a snow storm brought about 5.1" to Jackson on the seventh and eighth.
According to the NWS, a normal high is about 56.4°F and a low would be about 36.1°F.
The warmest Christmas Day high was 80°F in 2015 and 1942. The coldest Christmas Day low was 7°F in 1983.
The wettest Dec. 25 on record at Jackson Airport was 4.15 inches in 1926.