By the numbers
Dreaming of a white Christmas? Your odds are better if you live up north than in Milwaukee.
But even in Milwaukee, in any given year, there’s a good chance of at least some snow accumulation, and the average Milwaukee snow cover at Christmas is greater in recent years than during some other long stretches in the past century, according to records from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency that includes the National Weather Service.
Click images to expand
These graphs depict snow cover depth on Christmas Day since 1920 for Milwaukee and for Iron Mountain, Mich. We chose to graph Iron Mountain, a city on the Wisconsin-Michigan border, because its data set was more complete than most northern Wisconsin locations.
There are two graphs for each location. One depicts the exact depth of snow on the ground on Dec. 25 since 1920. The other depicts a 10-year rolling average of that snow cover, which varies considerably from year to year.
The underlying numbers
Please note:
When T is shown this means that only a trace of precipitation has fallen. Trace is defined as less than the smallest measurable amount. For snow depth that measurement is less than 0.5”.
When M is shown this means that the data is missing. This can happen for a variety of reasons including the data did not make a quality check, there was an equipment outage, or even the observer was not available at a manual station.
| Year | Milwaukee (inches) | Iron Mountain (inches) |
| 1920 | 3 | M |
| 1921 | 1 | 12 |
| 1922 | 1 | 11 |
| 1923 | 0 | 2 |
| 1924 | 2 | M |
| 1925 | 6 | 5 |
| 1926 | T | 6 |
| 1927 | 0 | 20 |
| 1928 | T | M |
| 1929 | 3 | 15 |
| 1930 | 4 | 2 |
| 1931 | 0 | M |
| 1932 | T | 1 |
| 1933 | 1 | 11 |
| 1934 | 3 | 15 |
| 1935 | 6 | 5 |
| 1936 | T | 2 |
| 1937 | 2 | 10 |
| 1938 | T | 12 |
| 1939 | 0 | 7 |
| 1940 | T | 9 |
| 1941 | 0 | 1 |
| 1942 | 2 | 16 |
| 1943 | 0 | M |
| 1944 | 4 | 7 |
| 1945 | 5 | 11 |
| 1946 | T | 3 |
| 1947 | 1 | 7 |
| 1948 | T | 4 |
| 1949 | T | 2 |
| 1950 | 8 | 11 |
| 1951 | 17 | 6 |
| 1952 | T | 4 |
| 1953 | T | 0 |
| 1954 | T | 6 |
| 1955 | 0 | 11 |
| 1956 | T | 10 |
| 1957 | 0 | 5 |
| 1958 | T | 7 |
| 1959 | 11 | 13 |
| 1960 | 1 | 0 |
| 1961 | 2 | 11 |
| 1962 | 1 | 6 |
| 1963 | 4 | 1 |
| 1964 | 0 | 11 |
| 1965 | 4 | 7 |
| 1966 | 3 | 3 |
| 1967 | T | 4 |
| 1968 | T | 12 |
| 1969 | 10 | 9 |
| 1970 | 5 | 11 |
| 1971 | T | 5 |
| 1972 | 1 | 8 |
| 1973 | 2 | 14 |
| 1974 | 3 | 6 |
| 1975 | 2 | 1 |
| 1976 | T | 7 |
| 1977 | T | 12 |
| 1978 | 1 | 12 |
| 1979 | 0 | T |
| 1980 | 3 | 7 |
| 1981 | 2 | 6 |
| 1982 | 0 | 1 |
| 1983 | 6 | 14 |
| 1984 | 3 | 6 |
| 1985 | 4 | 12 |
| 1986 | 0 | 4 |
| 1987 | 1 | 8 |
| 1988 | T | 2 |
| 1989 | T | 4 |
| 1990 | 0 | 4 |
| 1991 | T | 7 |
| 1992 | T | 6 |
| 1993 | 0 | 1 |
| 1994 | T | 1 |
| 1995 | 0 | 15 |
| 1996 | 1 | 16 |
| 1997 | 4 | 1 |
| 1998 | 0 | 5 |
| 1999 | 1 | 7 |
| 2000 | 25 | 13 |
| 2001 | T | 2 |
| 2002 | 0 | 0 |
| 2003 | T | 7 |
| 2004 | 0 | 6 |
| 2005 | 2 | 4 |
| 2006 | 0 | T |
| 2007 | 1 | 6 |
| 2008 | 13 | 11 |
| 2009 | 2 | 11 |
| 2010 | T | 10 |
| 2011 | 0 | 2 |
| 2012 | 1 | 9 |
| 2013 | 10 | 12 |
| 2014 | 0 | 7 |
| 2015 | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | 8 | 8 |
| 2017 | 1 | 6 |
| 2018 | T | 4 |
| 2019 | 0 | 14 |
| 2020 | 0 | 2 |
| 2021 | 0 | 6 |
| 2022 | 2 | 12 |
Published in the Dec. 22 issue of Top Picks.
