Here's how far Texans need to travel to see a White Christmas

So, you want to see a White Christmas? Well, sorry folks, it’s going to be a bit of a drive if you’re hoping to see snow for the holidays. In fact, National Weather Service data shows not many places even in the Northeastern United States are seeing snow when it comes time to unwrap presents and gorge on honey ham and eggnog.

What exactly is a White Christmas? It actually has a pretty specific definition when speaking meteorologically, according to the National Climate Data Center. The national agency defines a White Christmas as a blanket of snow reaching at least 1 inch in depth on December 25. However, there’s always the colloquial definition which just means being visited by a downpouring of snowflakes come Christmas.

Texas is pretty much not going to see a White Christmas anywhere anytime soon, according to data from the National Weather Service which shows most of Texas has seen a White Christmas only 10 percent of the recorded years since 1892. Basically, it’s highly unlikely it’ll happen for most of the Lone Star State.

“This does not mean that there is a 10 percent  chance of a White Christmas occurring every year over the Texas Panhandle. Instead, what it does mean is that a White Christmas has been observed less than 10% of the time across our area,” the National Weather Service says in a Texas and Oklahoma panhandle Christmas climatology report. “At Amarillo, a White Christmas has been observed 12 times since 1892 (about 9 percent of the time), last occurring in 2012.”

If you really want any hope of seeing snowfall on Santa’s big day, you’ll have to travel upwards of 800 miles from San Antonio to Colorado – one of the only places MySA could find that had any chance of snow come Christmas Day at all. And that’s fairly surprising considering Northeastern states in the U.S., like Idaho and portions of Wyoming, have seen a White Christmas on the holiday on roughly 70 percent of the recorded Christmases since 1982, according to a probability map shared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In case you are making the trek – which seems many Texans won’t, as AAA shared the top 15 cities Texans are traveling to this holiday season and none of them show chances of snow – the Texas Department of Transportation offered up some words of wisdom on how to traverse winter weather.

 “’If you don’t like the weather in Texas, wait ten minutes and it will change.’ That’s especially true in winter months when conditions vary widely across the state and can change rapidly as weather systems move through,” a TxDOT statement reads. “Texas drivers can take some simple steps to help protect themselves, their passengers and other road users as they travel during cold weather months.”

To start, TxDOT recommends making sure you’ve got a full tank of fuel and checking your vehicle’s antifreeze levels, battery, tires, windshield wipers, and, of course, your headlights – imagine if Rudolph didn’t have his shiny nose to guide the sleigh through snow.

“Slow down and increase the following distance between your vehicle and the one in front of you,” TxDOT warns. “It can take twice as long to stop on wet roads and up to 10 times as long on snowy or icy roads.”

The state agency also recommends braking gently, approaching turns and curves with extra caution, and traveling on more heavily traversed roadways. And would it be a TxDOT comment if they also didn’t also remind you to click it or ticket?