Chicagoans can kiss their wishes for a white Christmas goodbye.
The city is expected to see temperatures hovering around the 50s and intermittent chances of rain leading up to and on Christmas Day, according to the National Weather Service.
The forecast is likely to be “mild and moist,” according to Todd Kluber, a meteorologist with the NWS. The good news is weather probably won’t cause travel woes for those staying in the Midwest.
“Temperatures are fortunately gonna be well above freezing through Christmas,” Kluber said. “Freezing precipitation is not an issue for us for that holiday period and around that holiday travel time.”
The warm-up is expected to happen gradually. Thursday and Friday the high should be around 44 degrees, followed by a high of 49 on Saturday. On Christmas Eve Sunday, the high is expected to reach 53 degrees with a chance of showers in the evening and Christmas Day could reach 52 degrees, the NWS says.
A weather system in the west and southwest part of the country is pushing more mild temperatures toward the Midwest, Kluber said.
“It’s a slow-going system, with persistent winds continuing to bring warmer and more moist air from southern parts of the U.S. and even the Gulf of Mexico,” he said.
Typically, the end of December is one of the coldest parts of the year with temperatures in the 30s or below, Kluber said.
When will we see snow? It’s hard to tell, according to Kluber, but chances are looking slim for the coming weeks.
“I never want to say that we don’t have snow chances,” he said. “The next couple of weeks, the overall broader pattern isn’t entirely favorable of snow. [But] all it takes is a small system to come through here to drop a couple inches of snow.”
