Baby, it's cold outside now but is Calgary in for a White Christmas?

Calgarians dreaming of a white Christmas will have to wait another week or so before the official forecast is available from Environment Canada, but for those who can't wait, history says the chances are a little better than 50-50.

About 55 per cent to be exact.

Granted, whether or not there will be at least two centimetres of snow on the ground Environment Canada's minimum standard for calling it a white Christmas isn't just a matter of chance, but in recent years, the frequency of a white Christmas in Calgary has been going down.

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Forecasting seven days in advance means an official prediction won't be available until Dec. 19, but according to numbers compiled this week by Environment Canada, the city was blanketed with snow on Christmas day 70 per cent of the time between 1964 and 1984, which fell to 55 per cent between 1994 and 2015, a drop of 15 per cent.

And while there was snow on the ground Friday, the forecast calls for a warming trend over the next seven days, with a high of 2 C on Monday, 3 C on Tuesday and 6 C on Thursday and Friday.

Should the city have snow on Christmas day, it would mark the fourth year running, as we had nine centimetres in 2015, 16 centimetresin 2016 and 12 centimetresin 2017.

The snowiest Christmas since 1955 the earliest yearrecords are available was in 1996, when there was 19 centimetreson the ground. And the heaviest snowfall on Christmas was in 1971, when 7.1 centimetresfell throughout the day.

There have also been four "perfect Christmases" between 1955 and 2007, which means there was at least two centimetres on the ground and a measurable snowfall on Christmas day.

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