Like Bing Crosby, many people are looking ahead to next month, and are dreaming of a white Christmas. With the start of the holiday season now here, as decorations are going up throughout Weyburn, some are even looking ahead at what the weather could bring us over the next 27 days, and if that will include snow on the ground.  

We checked with Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment Canada. 

“We don’t have any models that really go out that far with any confidence whatsoever,” Lang explained. Which makes sense. It is quite a bit away from Christmas itself.  

Historically, the southeast portion of the province does have a history of both green - well, maybe more brown - and white Christmases, although it does tend to be more on the white Christmas side. 

So what is considered to be a white Christmas? According to Environment Canada, it is when there are more than two centimetres of snow on the ground at 7:00 a.m. Christmas Day. A perfect Christmas is when there are more than two centimetres on the ground, and a measurable amount of snow falls that day.  

 In the 15-year period from 2008 to 2022, there were 11 white Christmases. Of those, four were considered a perfect Christmas, with some snow falling on those days. The most recent perfect Christmas? Just last year.  

However, this year we do have El Nino to consider. The last two El Nino events, in 2019 and 2016, resulted in a green Christmas for Weyburn. The expectation for this year could be a green Christmas as well.  

Temperature is the one thing the models from Environment Canada can show, Lang said.  

“All they would tell us is whether it may be warmer than average, or may be drier than average, but it doesn’t tell us whether it’s going to snow or rain or anything like that.” 

While we wait for the winter to bring what it may bring, it will leave many of us dreaming of that white Christmas, with every Christmas card that we write.  

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