Chances for a ‘White Christmas’ in Spokane this year? Grab your raincoat

You can still dream about a white Christmas, but this year Spokane is likely to have rain and higher-than-normal temperatures for the holiday.

For Christmas Eve , the Tuesday forecast calls for an 80% chance of rain with a high near 45. The same is expected for Christmas day, mostly cloudy with a 30% chance of rain and high near 41, according to the National Weather Service.

“This year, it’s not looking like we’re going to have a white Christmas,” said Krista Carrothers, Spokane meteorologist for the weather service.

“For the most part, we have above-average temperatures, so any precipitation that does fall will be rain,” she said. “It does look like we’ll have some precipitation that will be rain on Christmas. We’re about 10 degrees above normal temperatures for this time of year.”

Spokane’s daily high temperatures are typically in the mid-30s around Christmas and lows are in the 20s. Any snow Wednesday is expected to fall at higher elevations in the mountains. Later on Christmas night, valley floors might get a light dusting, but that forecast could change, Carrothers said.

“All of those will be bringing a decent amount of rain to the lower elevations,” she said.

For mountain passes, Carrothers said snow accumulation isn’t expected on Christmas Eve for drivers on Snoqualmie Pass. Stevens Pass, however, could have between 4 and 7 inches, while Lookout in Idaho might get 1 to 2 inches.

Going back to when records were first kept, Spokane has had a white Christmas about 52% of the time. The weather service considers snow coverage to be at least 1 inch of snow depth on the ground, Carrothers said.

Based on that, white Christmases in Spokane have numbered 68 out of 131 holidays since 1893.

The most recent time we had a white Christmas in Spokane was in 2022 when there was 15 inches of snow on the ground, Carrothers said.

Before then, the Lilac City didn’t see any snow on Christmas from 2018 to 2020. The year 2017 had 1 inch, while 2021 had 4 inches.

The next big shot at snow might happen the day after Christmas for higher elevations, which should help skiing conditions the week between Christmas and New Year’s.