No white Christmas for Windsor, says Environment Canada

Chances of a white Christmas are slim this year.

Since 1955, Windsor has only had four of what Environment Canada considers a "perfect" Christmas.

Classified as when there's two centimetres of snow on the ground and snow in the air, last year was one of those perfect occurrences.

Environment Canada climatologist Dave Phillips saidthere's no hope of a perfect Christmas next week.

"Clearly we're going to see over the next two or three days, we're going to have jacket weather shirt sleeve weather," said Phillips. "We're going to also see some rain. That's going to deny anybody in southwestern Ontario a white Christmas."

According to Phillips, Canada is the snowiest country in the world and even people who hate snow tend to warm up to it aroundChristmas time.

Historical data compiled by Environment Canada shows it's a coin flip for a white Christmas. There's been just a 55 per cent chance in the last 25 years. Almost 20 Christmases since 1986 have been green.

Phillips said that number has fallen dramatically over the years.

"It used to be more in southwestern Ontario, maybe 65, 68 per cent chance now it's more like 55, 52 per cent chance."

Phillips said there are some good things about a green Christmas, however.

"Sometimes when you're wishing for a white Christmas, you get too much and travel becomes difficult," said Phillips. "But we think the weekend leading up to Christmas and for a couple days afterwards, it looks pretty clear sailing."

On average,there's been four centimetres of snow on the ground in Windsor on Christmas morning over the last 25 years. Last year, there was more than 10.