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White Christmas
At this particular season, everyone wants to know if White County will have a “White Christmas.”
Meteorologist Patricia Atwell at National Weather Service Office at Peachtree City tells us: “It is not looking good for those who’d like a white Christmas. The prediction for the next three to four weeks is for above normal temperatures for this time of year. The normal highs for this time of year are in the low 50s with normal lows in the lower 30s. At this time, temperatures across the area appear too warm for any snow to fall, so there’s not a good chance of a white Christmas this year.”
White Christmases are indeed rare here. Looking back through 78 years of weather records, only three were found. The first was a 7-inch snowfall for Christmas, 1947 recorded by Cleveland observer Mary Lou Sutton. The next was Christmas 2010 when Dean Dyer at WRWH Radio in Cleveland recorded 2 inches and Bill Kinsland at the Sautee Weather Station recorded 2.3 inches. In 2020, a 1-inch snowfall was recorded by Helen Police Department and also at the Sautee Weather Station.
December snow in White County is infrequent but it does happen. In fact, the county’s biggest December snowfall event in the 78 years of record-keeping occurred fairly recently on Dec. 9, 2017. At WRWH Radio Station in Cleveland, 4.2 inches were recorded. Observers at the Helen Police Department recorded 3.5 inches. At the Sautee Weather Station, 5.5 inches fell.
Again the following year on Dec. 9, Cleveland got 1 inch of snow. Helen had 1.5 inches and Sautee recorded 1 inch.
An exhaustive study of all White County weather records for December all the way back to 1943 disclosed 25 snow or ice events at the three different sites.
Although no systematic weather records exist for White County prior to 1943, old newspaper reports from neighboring communities reveal larger events that undoubtedly affected White County.
The heaviest snowstorm known to hit northern Georgia occurred Dec. 3, 1886, and lasted through Dec. 6. Reporting in the Dahlonega Signal newspaper the following week, editor J.W. Woodward wrote that Dahlonega recorded a total of 24 inches of accumulated snow on the ground.
Going further back, Auraria newspaper editor Allen G. Fambrough in Lumpkin County wrote in the Western Herald that on Dec. 21, 1833, 6 inches of snow fell and covered everything.