Christmas lights in Kearney, (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
GRAND ISLAND — The mention of Christmas often invokes visions of snow cover and cold weather.
However, Christmas weather in south central Nebraska certainly doesn’t always ring true to this picture. Just in the last 30 years, Christmas high temperatures in Grand Island have ranged from 11° to 62 degrees.
This story features a wealth of Christmas Day weather and climate information focused specifically on Grand Island, where December weather records date back 129 years to 1895,official weather data recorded at Central Nebraska Regional Airport since 1938.
Temperatures: According to the entire period of record, the warmest Christmas on record was 62 degreeson three occasions (1999, 1963, 1922) and the coldest low temperature was minus 16 degrees in both 1983 and1924.
Only 22-of-126 Christmases on record (17 percent) have featured high temperatures of 50 degrees or warmer, but four of these have occurred in the last 13 years (including both 2021-2020).
On the opposite end of the temperature spectrum, only 10-of-128 Christmases on record (eight percent) have featured sub-zero low temperatures (most recently two years ago in 2022). Christmas 1983 truly stood out on the bitterly cold side of things, with a high temperature of only seven degrees and a bone-chilling low of minus 16 degrees. Despite how cold Christmas 1983 was, that day actually broke an unprecedented streak of seven consecutive days of below zero temperatures that lasted from Dec. 18-24, 1983.
Precipitation/Snowfall: As for liquid precipitation equivalent (which includes any melted snowfall), only 16-of-129 Christmases (12 percent) have featured measurable precipitation. In terms of active, memorable Christmas weather, there have been a few notable ones just in the last 15 years (and not just snowfall).
Just last year, Christmas 2023 featured a moderately-impactful winter storm with at least a few hours of near-blizzard conditions. Going a bit farther back, we are now 15 years removed from the major Christmas blizzard of 2009. This memorable storm dumped 7.8 inches of wind-whipped snow on Grand Island during the calendar day, and 9.1 inches of storm-total snow between Dec. 24-26.
Eight years ago in 2016, Christmas featured extremely active weather, but it had nothing to do with snow, as instead, an unusually mild and moist airmass fueled a line of strong thunderstorms during the afternoon hours.
Then just a few hours later during the evening, an unusually strong and long-lasting high wind event occurred, featuring at least 2-3 hours of sustained westerly winds frequently 30-50 mph and a peak gust of 75 mph at Central Nebraska Regional Airport.
These winds caused considerable, mainly minor damage not only within Grand Island but also across much of south-central Nebraska.
