White Christmas? Only in Kansas City’s dreams

If a white Christmas was on your wish list, you might want to consider crossing it off and moving onto your next item.

It’s becoming more certain that Kansas City will not see snow this Christmas Day.

So don’t let Thursday’s cooler temperatures fool you. Thursday is expected to be the coldest day of December with highs reaching into the middle to upper 30s, according to the National Weather Service.

A slow warming trend begins Friday, with highs in the upper 30s to low 40s. Highs on Saturday are expected to be in the 40s to low 50s. Sunday temperatures likely will be in the 50s.

There’s almost a 90 percent chance that temperatures from Kansas City eastward will be above normal in the days leading up to Christmas.

The National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill said on its Facebook page that procrastinators won’t be able to use the weather as an excuse for not getting their shopping done or their Christmas decorations up.

Though there’s a chance of rain late Sunday, much of the weekend will be dry. It appears that Christmas Eve will be dry with highs in the mid-40s to lower 50s.

Historically, Kansas City has a 20 percent probability of snow on the ground and 12 percent chance of snowfall on Christmas, according to the NOAA's National Climatic Data Center annual White Christmas story.

The Weather Channel said this might be the warmest Christmas in living memory. Much of the Midwest and East will be under a warm weather pattern. Some meteorologists jokingly refer in social media to this pattern as a “blowtorch.”

Traveling outside the Kansas City area for holidays? Press here to see The Weather Channel’s White Christmas Forecast.

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 8:36 AM with the headline "White Christmas? Only in Kansas City’s dreams."