Kim Fundingsland/MDN A white Christmas would enhance the appearance of outdoor decorations, but odds favor little chance of snowfall for the holiday.

Don’t count on it. The chance of having a white Christmas for the Minot area is not very good. Forecasters say the ground on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will likely look very much like it does today.

While a blanket of clean, white snow would add a certain festive charm to the holiday, there’s simply very little chance of that happening. If any snow does fall, says the National Weather Service, it would not amount to much.

“Overall, it’s not looking like a white Christmas. There’s not much hope,” said Patrick Ayd, Bismarck NWS meteorologist. “There’s about a 30 percent chance of snow on Christmas Day but it would be pretty minimal. We’re not expecting any snow ahead of that.”

The lack of snow on Christmas Day is a rarity in North Dakota but it has happened. Historically, says the NWS, the chances of a white Christmas for the region are greater than fifty percent. Not this year though.

Working against the possibility of a white Christmas, even if a surprise snowfall should occur, is a continuation of relatively mild temperatures. Today’s forecast calls for a daytime high under sunny skies of nearly 40 degrees. Friday should see similar temperatures. The thermometer is expected to fall below the freezing mark Saturday through Christmas Day, next Tuesday, but still reach into the mid- to upper 20’s.

“Odds are looking like not a white Christmas,” reiterated Ayd. “There’s a very slim chance of snow early next week but not adding up to a whole lot.”

Current snowpack in the city is limited to shady areas or those spots where snow has been shoveled or pushed into piles. Several days of warm temperatures have all but eliminated snow cover on open ground in most of the state. An exception is some areas along the northern tier of North Dakota.

The best bet for those wishing to see snow on the ground in the coming days would be the Bottineau Winter Park. They have been utilizing snow making machines to add to the existing snowpack in the Turtle Mountains and report their slopes are fully operational.

The first day of winter officially arrives this Friday. To be exact, for meteorlogical purposes, winter begins at 4:23 p.m. that day. The winter solstice marks the shortest amount of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere with 8 hours and 20 minutes sunshine available. By Christmas Day, four days later, one minute of daylight will be added as the amount of daylight begins to slowly increase as the calendar heads toward spring.

The December full moon, known as the Full Cold Moon, also makes its appearance on the night of the 21st, the first day of winter. That won’t happen again until 2094. The Full Cold Moon will be reduced in appearance by just five-percent by the night of Christmas Eve, Monday, Dec. 24.

Social media sites have been warning for several days about the looming advance of a polar vortex that is about to descend upon the United States, bringing with it extremely cold weather and disruptive winter conditions. However, caution meteorologists, such long-range predictions are very unreliable.

The official NWS outlook for this winter remains unchanged. It favors warmer than usual temperatures and less than average snowfall for our region.