A White Christmas in Rockford?

Officially we have seen our first snow flakes in Rockford.

According to My Stateline, even though nothing is on the ground the first flakes have fell and our Christmas could be white. The definition of a "White Christmas" is having 1" of snowfall on the ground.

Here are some historic facts about a White Christmas in our area:

• Freeport has seen 15 of the last 30 Christmas mornings with snow
• 1951 in Dixon had 25" of snow on the ground on Christmas
• Going back to 1905 Rockford has seen 65 Christmas Day's with no snow

A month out it is  impossible to 100% answer the question if we will have a White Christmas, but based on the history of our area we are looking at a 40-50% chance of snow in the Rockford area for snow.

There are areas across the country where it is pretty much a given that you will have snow on the ground for Christmas:

• Maine
• Upstate New York
• Minnesota
• The mountains across the Western United States