With a record number of Americans expected to travel for the holidays this week, that picturesque White Christmas can bring its own dangers.
The ground is finally white in the Capital Region after weekend snow, while AAA predicts a record 119 million Americans are hitting the road for the holidays. Steve DiRienzo, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Albany Office, says motorists should stay prepared.
“If you look at the number of fatalities, weather-related fatalities, by far the number one largest cause is traffic accidents on snow and ice. It's greater than all the other weather fatalities added together. So driving for the weather, you know, slowing down on ice and snow, that's probably the most important thing,” DiRienzo said.
DiRienzo says drivers should have blankets packed in their car in addition to water and nonperishable food. He adds drivers caught in snowstorms and squalls can help avoid crashes by staying calm.
“If you do suddenly encounter, go from dry road to snow, the last thing you want to do is hit your brakes. Just take your foot off the gas and just coast to a slower speed. Just be mindful of other vehicles that may have already gotten into accidents ahead of you,” DiRienzo said.
He says the most predictable feature of the Capital Region’s weather is its unpredictability.
“We're close to the Atlantic Ocean. We can get moisture. We can get tropical storms from the ocean. We are close to Canada. So we get cold air that comes down from the north. Sometimes cold air drains right down the Champlain and Hudson Valley, and we can get an ice storm even while the mountains are warmer, because the cold air is drained down the valley,” DiRienzo said.
While their own radar and weather gauges go a long way in providing forecasts for the region, the Weather Service depends on the eyes of everyday New Yorkers with snow and rain gauges. Christina Speciale is lead meteorologist with the Albany office. She says the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, or CoCoRaHS, is key to community safety.
“We ask that you measure rain and snow or one or the other, whichever is your preference, every morning, preferably between 6am and 9am each day, we have there is an app that you can download on your phone, take the measurement, document it, and then your data will go on the CoCoRaHs website,” Speciale said.
Speciale says it’s a vital tool, both for predicting flood likelihood from snowmelt to confirming what their own instruments are telling them. As for particularly memorable weather she’s seen, Speciale says it came right before Christmas 2020.
“There was a snow band that developed from Binghamton to, I think it was the Glens Falls, Lake George area. They got like, oh my gosh. It must have been like 25 to 40 inches, and it fell less in less than a 12-hour period,” Speciale said.
Speciale says she had to walk to the office that morning.
While the idea of a White Christmas, at least one inch of snow on the ground come December 25th, might be a romantic ideal, WNYT and WAMC meteorologist Reid Kisselback says it’s never been a guarantee around Albany.
“30 out of 70 times going back to 2022, at least 43 percent of the time. Albany has had a White Christmas. 31 out of 70 times we're green with no white Christmas; and then, if we look at the last two Christmases, I mean, we didn't have any last year at all. We hardly had any snow last year,” Kisselback said.
Kisselback says 30-year average snowfall has slowly declined from 65.4 inches yearly between the 1950s and ‘80s to 59.2 between 1990 and 2020. He notes New York’s Capital Region isn’t likely to see permanently green Christmases any time soon, although winter-based activities may require artificial snowmaking.
So why do people idealize a White Christmas anyway?
“I think that just attests to just going back to being a child and waking up Christmas morning. And a lot of folks were in the older generations remember waking up and seeing snowfall or snow on the ground,” Kisselback said.
