Ottawa will have a white Christmas in 2018 after all

“Absolutely frigid weather” at Major’s Hill. Photo by David Johnson via the OttawaStart Flickr pool.

Snow is on the ground in Ottawa – and it will stay through Christmas.

After Saturday’s sprinkling of 3.2 centimetres of snow over Ottawa, there was about 4 centimetres of snow on the ground measured at the Ottawa Airport as of 7 a.m. Sunday. With temperatures forecast to stay well below freezing into this week, plus a chance of more snowfall on Christmas Eve, that snow is here to stay.

#Ottawa will have a white Christmas this year, just barely. The airport reports 4cm on the ground as of 7am today, and we will keep that until after #Christmas.
Other years that had ≥ 2cm and ≤ 4cm of snow on Christmas morning: 1974, 1994, 2002, 2011.#OttWx pic.twitter.com/BiFpyxU834

— Ottawa Weather Records🌤 (@YOW_Weather) December 23, 2018

Here is the forecast for the next few days in Ottawa from Environment Canada:

Christmas Eve: Cloudy with a 60 per cent chance of flurries late morning and afternoon. High minus 6 degrees Wind up to 15 km/h with a wind chill at minus 15 in the morning and minus 10 in the afternoon. Overnight clear and minus 17.

Christmas Day: Sunny and a high minus 8. Overnight clear and minus 11.

Boxing Day: Sunny and high minus 8. Overnight clear and minus 13.