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We're under a week until Santa heads out and our snow is pretty much gone, so is there even a chance of a White Christmas in southeast Minnesota this year?

It was just a little over a week ago, back on Friday, December 10th, when Old Man Winter made his first appearance here in Minnesota, dumping between 6 and 12 inches of the white stuff over southeast Minnesota (with MUCH more snow in parts of the southeast Twin Cities metro area.)

I thought that might guarantee we would have a White Christmas in Rochester this year. But then, of course, Mother Nature whipped up that historic storm system last Wednesday that gave us record high temperatures in the 60's along with near record-setting wind gusts in addition to 15 confirmed tornadoes. It also melted all of that snow.

So what are our chances for a White Christmas in southeast Minnesota this year? The National Weather Service (NWS) in La Crosse says that our chances of having a white Christmas (which is defined as having an inch or snow on the ground or falling that day) is normally at 78 percent, noting that we've had a white Christmas 66 out of 85 times since 1933 here in Rochester.

The last time Rochester didn't have a White Christmas was ten years ago, back in 2011. But this year might put us in that 22 percent of years where we get to enjoy a brown and/or grey Christmas as well. In his Monday morning forecast, KTTC Meteorologist Ted Schmidt notes we could see some flurries Tuesday afternoon with less than a half-inch accumulation.

He also said another storm system could bring some snow (or rain) showers to our neck of the woods during the day on Christmas Eve this Friday, but 'little or no accumulation is expected.' The NWS forecast is similar, noting that 'the chance for accumulating snow is looking fairly limited and mostly confined farther to the north.'

Speaking of Christmas, like I said, when I was a kid, it seemed like there was ALWAYS snow on the ground. What do YOU remember about Christmas when YOU were a kid? Keeps scrolling to check out what Christmas was like the year you were born!

Listen to Curt St. John in the Morning
weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. on Quick Country 96.5

LOOK: See what Christmas was like the year you were born

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