OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Those dreaming of a white Christmas in the United States are having a harder time of it because there has been a big drop in holiday snow days.
For the past few decades, especially in the Northeast, warmer temperatures have reduced the number of snow days by as much as 26 percent during the period of Nov. 25 to Dec. 24, according to meteorologist Dale Kaiser at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
He studied the period from 1948 through 2001 and found areas east of the Mississippi River had an average of five fewer days with snowfall, ABC News reported.
Meanwhile the central Rocky Mountain states of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, and extending eastward into Nebraska, had more snow days during the same period.
Temperatures since 1948 have warmed by several degrees during the beginning and end of the winter season, said Kaiser, so it's less likely to get cold enough to snow, while the main winter season remains cold with plenty of snow.
