Sorry, Savannah. Rather than a white Christmas, we are likely to get a wet holiday

Wednesday morning’s frosty windshields and chilly air offered Savannah a taste of winter, but the cold snap will be fleeting.

That’s why coastal Georgia will continue its more than three-decades-long streak of snowless Christmases.

The flake-less forecast comes as no surprise.

Historically, the annual probability that Savannah will experience a snowfall of at least 1 inch on Dec. 25 is zero. That’s because it’s never happened – as far as we know, at least.

Coastal Georgia had a white Christmas in 1989, but the 2 inches of snow on the ground was left from Dec. 23 and 24, when a total of 3.6 inches fell as a freak winter storm slammed areas from Florida to North Carolina, according to National Weather Service data.

An inch of snow officially remained Dec. 27.

It marked Savannah’s only measurable December snowfall on record, according to NWS data dating to the middle of the last century.

More: Savannah had only had one white Christmas. Do you remember the historic day?

How about this Christmas?

Savannah’s Christmas won’t be white, but it very well could be wet, and most certainly will be warm.

As of Wednesday, the National Weather Service forecast called for temperatures in the high 60s and a 60% chance of rain for Christmas Day.

That’s well above Savannah’s historical average high of 60 degrees for Dec. 25, and downright balmy compared to Tuesday and Wednesday, when temperatures peaked in the low 50s and plunged into the 20s.

Christmas Eve is expected to be partly sunny with highs in the mid-60s. Lows that night will only dip into the upper 50s, although there is a 30% chance of rain, according to NWS.

Highs and lows of Christmases past

Savannah’s warmest Christmas was 2015, when yuletide temperatures topped out at 82 degrees.

The coldest Christmas ever in Savannah was in 1983, when the low dipped to 10 degrees. That actually tied for the fourth-coldest temperature ever recorded in the city (the all-time low was 3 degrees on Jan. 21, 1985).

A year later, in 1984, Savannah hit 80 degrees on Christmas.

Savannah experienced its wettest Christmas back in 1873, when nearly 2 inches of rain soaked the area.

More: Savannah’s only white Christmas featured this ghostlike Santa sighting

Lots of ‘green Christmas’ experiences coming nationally

Historically, less than half of the contiguous United States has a 50% chance annually of having at least an inch snow on the ground for Christmas, according to NWS.

Areas in the Rocky Mountains, Midwest and northern New England are more likely to have a coasting – if not a blanket – of white for the holiday.

In most non-mountainous sections of the south, like coastal Georgia, the annual holiday snow chances are virtually zero.

This year, sections of Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, Washington and Wyoming have a high probability of holiday snow, according to AccuWeather. Western New York, including Buffalo, also is more likely than not to experience a Christmas of white.

John Deem covers climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia, He can be reached at jdeem@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah, Ga. weather for Christmas: Sorry, no snow. Rain likely