What Are The Odds Of A White Christmas in Dixie?

I've been in southern Utah for nearly 30 years. Long enough to think I'm a native, but not long enough for those old-timers who have been here for 40 or 50 or 60 years to call me a native.

Truthfully, my roots go down to Texas, but the rest of the tree is fully in Washington County. When we moved here in the early 1990s, we had one kid (he was born in Logan) and then proceeded to have four more, all born at Dixie Regional.

We raised all five of the kids here in Dixie, a truly great place to rear and educate youngsters.

But there was always one thing missing.

We've never had a white Christmas.

Now there's a lot of reasons we stayed here all these years, and one of those was not having to shovel snow (!) or drive on icy streets. So I'm not complaining about the mild Christmases over the years.

As you know, when it does snow here, it's usually melted by late afternoon.

The scenario in St. George area:

Snow falls. School is canceled. Kids go out in short sleeves and build snowmen. Everyone rushes to Wal-Mart to buy a sled and a coat. Snow turns to slush, then water. Lone snowmen stand sentinel on grassy lawns throughout town. Within a few days even they are reduced to mushy piles of slush, sticks and black pieces of lava rock that were once the snow soldier's eyes.

Sound familiar?

So I'm not optimistic that Christmas will be white here this year, or maybe ever. The long-term forecast, based on current weather trends and past weather records, says it will likely be 44 degrees and sunny on Christmas Day with nary a snowflake in sight.

Still, I will hold out hope that someday we will have a White Christmas in Dixie.