If you're looking for a white Christmas, don't look around here.
"It's just not going to happen," said Larry Brown, a forecaster at the National Weather Service's Wakefield office. "It's going to stay pretty mild the next several days. We have a good chance of getting some rain on Christmas Day. That's not what people want to hear."
Last year, snow began to fall on Christmas afternoon and continued with a record-setting 3.8 inches on Dec. 26 to reach a total of more than 6 inches.
Measurable snowfall on Christmas Day occurs only about 7 percent of the time in Richmond, according to weather service records that date to 1897.
The greatest snowfall on Christmas Day since 1897 was 5.4 inches in 1914. The greatest snow depth at 7 a.m. Christmas Day was 7 inches in 1908. Before last year, the most recent measurable Christmas snowfall was in 1993.
In the recent warmth, Virginia ski resorts are watching their assets melt away.
At Massanutten Resort near Harrisonburg, it hasn't been cold enough for the snow-making machines to help much.
"We've struggled since early December to get enough snow down to open additional slopes," said Steve Showalter, ski area manager. The resort opened Dec. 13, a few days later than usual.
"We only made snow about 100 hours," Showalter said. "Normally at this time of year we would have made snow for 300 or 400 hours. Everybody on the East Coast is in this weather pattern that is unseasonably warm. Last night [Tuesday], the low was 49 degrees."
Night skiing has been canceled at Massanutten and at Wintergreen in Nelson County until conditions improve enough Saturday or Sunday night to allow snowmaking to resume.
Wintergreen, which opened last weekend, has a base of 8 to 24 inches, said Dana Quillen, vice president for sales and marketing.
Both resorts recommended that skiers check the snow reports on their websites for the most current information.
For a white Christmas, Snowshoe Mountain Resort might be the place. In the highlands of West Virginia, the forecast is calling for snow or at least snowmaking temperatures on Friday, said Mark Glickman, vice president of marketing and sales.
Snowshoe, which opened on Dec. 9, has more terrain open than any ski resort south of Vermont, he said. The snow base is 10 to 20 inches. A new snowboard park opened Wednesday with 12 features and four jumps.
"We're always optimistic in the ski business," Glickman said. "There's snow here when there isn't snow anywhere else."
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