White Christmas still likely for Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins

Environment Canada has calculated the probability of a white Christmas for parts of northeastern Ontario, and with just nine days left to go and still more brown than white on the ground at the moment the chances look fairly good.

• Milder winter predicted for northeastern Ontario

According to its website, "Environment Canada has analyzed 59 years of weather records for 43 major centres across Canada, and calculated the probability of having a white snow-covered Christmas Day."

Based on that data, Sudbury has a 90 per cent chance of having snow on the ground on Dec. 25. In fact, the analysis shows that the majority of Christmas days in Sudbury in the last 60 years have seen snow. So the odds are very good.

Just the same, it's been an unusuallymild winter in the Nickel City so far.The agency says there's usually an average of around twenty centimetres of snow on the ground by now.

As for Sault Ste. Marie, ithas an 80 per cent chance of snow for Christmas Day andfor Timmins, the probabilityclimbs to 95 percent.

The Sault has an 80 per cent average of whiteChristmasesover the past 60 years, while almost every Christmas inTimminshas been white.

Will it be 'perfect'?

Environment Canada considers a "Perfect Christmas" to be two centimetres of snow on the ground the morning of Dec.25 with snow in the air sometime during the day.

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