"The Morning Call Inc., Copyright 2002"
Date: MONDAY, December 24, 1984
A WHITE CHRISTMAS? KEEP ON DREAMING . . .
by BILL WEDO, The Morning Call
You there. The one dreaming of a white Christmaswith every Christmas card you write. With treetops glistening and children listening and all that.
Well, keep dreaming.
All you incurable romantics plug your ears. A close look at a half century of weather in this area proves that the idyllic vision of a Christmas blanketed in snow that's in every movie and television special, every book and recording, from ''A Christmas Carol'' to ''How The Grinch Stole Christmas'' to ''Jingle Bells,'' hardly ever occurs.
According to figures compiled by Charles Giannetta of the National Weather Service at the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Airport, there is less than a 10 percent chance of a white Christmas in this area. Giannetta has charted 53 years of Christmas weather from 1931 to 1983 and his figures make lies out of many childhood memories.
White Christmas revelers in the Valley have had cause to celebrate just four times in those 53 years - three times in 1- to 5-inch snowfall and once when 9 inches arrived in 1969.
If you're the forgiving sort and will settle for a White Christmas Eve things look a little brighter - and whiter. Eight of those days 1 to 5 inches arrived, with the tops of 4.7 inches in 1947. Those who refuse to give in can settle for a white day-after Christmas. That's happened six times. Of course, none of these statistics take into account those trace amounts under an inch and for some just a 15-minute flurry makes the Yueltide complete.
If you're not much of a gambler, and you really want the odds on your side take Giannetta's weather colleague Bill Dovico's approach. He's charted 23 holidays and as far as he's concerned, if there's snow on the ground it's a White Christmas.
The odds for a snow-covered, if not snowy, holiday approach the 50 percent mark, as statistics show 10 Christmases in the past two decadeswith a measurable amount of snow on the ground.
Why all this fuss about some ice crystal precipitation that anybody in his right mind loathes on any day of the year? Well, Christmas does come at the end of December when it's usually cold enough for snow. But it's more than that. One of the most endearing visions of Christmas comes from the classic holiday tale ''A Christmas Carol'' by Charles Dickens. His wintry visions of London in the early 1800s are as much a part of the tale's charm as the colorful characters Scrooge and Tiny Tim. Dickens' frosty Christmas are grounded in fact, but it's a fact that's long gone.
Dickens' era was at the end of an extremely cold period meteorologists have dubbed ''the little ice age'' which lasted from 1400 until the 1850s. In the early part of the century, the River Thames froze over 20 times. In the 180 years since it has not frozen over once. Dickens, as much as anyone, has helped to freeze an image of Christmas that is more 1812 than 1984.
Clement Moore picked up on the frosty atmosphere in his poem ''The Night Before Christmas'' but these days, it's still that 1942 Irving Berlin tune ''White Christmas'' which captures - and spreads - the feeling of nostalgia and peace that has made snow such a sought-after commodity around the end of December.
It may seem silly, especially when you drive Route 22, to be wishing for snow. But as Bob Cratchit once said to Scrooge, ''It is only once a year, sir.'' And besides, snow for Christmas is more than simply fulfilling the prophecy of all the songs and the books and the TV shows.
It's really just a good old-fashioned dream.
|
"WEATHER BY GIANNETTA"