This will ‘certainly’ be a white Christmas in Ottawa, Environment Canada says

Snow on the Christmas tree in the ByWard Market. (Josh Pringle/CTV News Ottawa)

With Christmas Day now two weeks away, Ottawa residents can begin to dream of a white Christmas.

Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips says Wednesday’s winter storm means it should be a Christmas Day with snow on the ground in the capital.

“For those people who hope and dream and beg and pray for a white Christmas, well, this will certainly be one,” Phillips told CTV News Ottawa on Wednesday.

“I just don’t see no way this snow is going to leave you before January.”

Ottawa received 11.6 cm of snow on Wednesday, with another 0.4 cm of snow overnight.

A white Christmas is defined as 2 cm or more of snow on the ground on Christmas morning at 7 a.m.

“There’s no way this snow is going to leave (before Christmas), you’re just going to be adding to it in the next week,” Phillips said.

“We’re still two weeks before Christmas; we don’t see any melting temperatures, no rain to take that snow away.”

Phillips says the snow is “white gold” for skiers, snowboarders and other outdoor enthusiasts.

According to Environment Canada, there has been a 79 per cent chance of a white Christmas in Ottawa since 1955.

“It’s not always a sure thing. In the last 10 years, four of those have been green. You had a white one last year, but not the year before,” Phillips said.

Since 1990, Ottawa has had nine green Christmas days, including in 2020 and 2023.

Ottawa had 19 cm of snow on the ground on Christmas Day in 2024 and 44 cm in 2022.

Snowfall on the ground in Ottawa on Dec. 25

• 2024: 19 cm
• 2023: 1 cm
• 2022: 44 cm
• 2021: 7 cm
• 2020: 0 cm
• 2019: Trace of snow
• 2018: 5 cm
• 2017: 24 cm
• 2016: 45 cm
• 2015: 0 cm
• 2014: 5 cm
• 2013: 38 cm

(Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada)