This year it doesn't look like Santa Claus will be confused. Last year Christmas Day was exceptionally warm with highs in the 60s - 64F in New Haven and 62F in Hartford. Christmas Eve? An incredible torch! The temperature reached 69F in Windsor Locks and 70F in Willimantic!
Christmas 2016 looks decidedly more normal. The GFS pictured above has a strong high pressure moving across southern Quebec with a nice surge of low level cold nosing south. This would mean temperatures in the 30s to near 40 degrees across the state. Christmas-like!
Unfortunately, for most of Connecticut there will not be a white Christmas. In the hills there is a few inches of snow on the ground and that may be able to last for the next couple days. Elsewhere it's not looking good.
There is one possible Christmas miracle scenario. The European model has a period of light/moderate snow on Christmas Eve with up to 2" in Litchfield County. Could this include other parts of the state? Maybe but not likely. In fact the European Ensembles show only a less than 10 percent chance of getting an inch of snow in the hills so the Euro's snowy solution is definitely an outlier.
At least Santa won't be wearing shorts this year!
