Maine’s Aroostook County Just had its 7th Green Christmas in 85 Years

Apparently, there are actual "rules" for a white Christmas.

I was "today-years-old" when I found out that the National Weather Service actually has a quantifiable amount of snow to be qualified as a white, or green for that matter, Christmas. Technically, there has to be at least one inch of snow on the ground to qualify as a white Christmas. It's not much, but it's probably at least enough to keep the grass under cover.

Anything less than that, and we're in green Christmas-ville. Personally, I don't really mind either way. I suppose if I had to pick an ideal situation, there'd be enough snow on the ground for a white holiday season, and maybe a little delicate series of flurries on Christmas Day. That way you get the festive feelings, but no bad driving conditions.

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The National Weather Service has been tracking Christmases for almost 100 years.

Since 1925, the NWS has been tracking Bangor, and Caribou since 1939. In all that time, the County has only had 7 white Christmases, as of this year. As opposed to Bangor that's had at least 15, with a few years missing. I tried to find the same info for Portland, but I'm guessing it's a crap-shoot year to year in Portland, being so close to the ocean.

The NWS also takes into account that sometimes snow falls on Christmas, but there isn't really enough on the ground to count. So those also get labeled as a green Christmas. Bangor has had many of those, as well as just no snow at all. We're perhaps a bit more used to it?

It's funny, because both Bangor and Caribou were good to go until the two consecutive wind and rain storms literally put a damper on things. Now all we can do is cross our fingers and see if we have any better luck next year.

If you decide to travel, I bet all these places will likely have a smidge of snow on the ground...