CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) - The weather outside is far from frightful, with temperatures in Illinois running 10 degrees above average for December.
People in the "Let It Snow" camp can take heart. Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel says a "white Christmas" may still be ahead.
He says that, in general, the odds of at least an inch of snow on the ground on Dec. 25 are about 40 to 60 percent in the northern third of Illinois, 20 to 40 percent in central Illinois, and zero to 20 percent in southern Illinois.
One of the biggest Christmas Day snowfalls was in Chicago in 1951 with 17 inches. Rockford had 14 inches of snow in 1951 and again in 2000.
Angel works at the Illinois State Water Survey at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.
