It Has Been Ten Years Since Oklahoma Experienced a White Christmas

The weather is so unpredictable pretty much any time of year in Oklahoma, here we are a week out from Christmas and everyone is curious if the mild +/-70° forecast will suddenly dump enough snow to make it magical.

Spoiler alert, it doesn't appear so.

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Oklahoma hasn't had a "White Christmas" for a solid decade, and 2024 is going to likely add year number 11 to that trend.

Now, we came close in 2014... but the snow came a few weeks after the holiday, as the snow usually comes sweeping down the plains... in February.

I remember it pretty vividly because it was my first winter back in Southwest Oklahoma and we ended up with a wagon trail to work for those few days of powdery cold.

In fact, it was so cold that even after the snow melted away, Medicine Creek out in the mountains remained solidly frozen for a few more days. It sure made for a unique Oklahoma experience.

Oklahoma hasn't had a true White Christmas since 2012.

I remember the worry surrounding it too, because it fell on Christmas Eve. Grandma and Grandpa worried about everyone trying to get home, but it turned out to be like two-to-three inches that froze into a sheet of textured ice. Our fantastic road crews had the highways clear by the next morning.

2009 also provided a White Christmas, but it wasn't picturesque. It was a mess of a storm that happened to ruin plans for families all across Oklahoma. From the slushie start to the icy finish, my mother still brings this year up from time to time since our family travel plans were put to an abrupt end.

Going back further, 2002 had an equally awful and very icy White Christmas, and the only other time before that was 1975.

If you're keeping count, that's a total of four White Christmases in the last 70 years of recorded history for the Sooner State.

Also, if you're thinking "That's not right," you may be onto something. While we've had plenty of icy dustings on Christmas in the last few years, that doesn't stack up to the definition of "White Christmas."

To qualify as such, it has to be a measurable amount of snow at least one inch thick.

So what does Christmas look like for Oklahoma this year?

Well, they're calling it a Brown Christmas.

With all the grass mostly dormant, and the vibrantly bright trees nearly bare, it's Christmas as usual for Oklahoma, but at least it'll be warm enough for some outdoor fun with the kids.