Will El Paso See a White Christmas? Here’s How the Forecast Looks for Christmas Day 2020

Already thinking ahead to Christmas Day and hoping for a white one? Hate to disappoint, but you’ll have to be content with simply dreaming of one.

While Santa is definitely coming to town, he won’t be bringing any magical snow with him. Instead, we’ll see a mix of sun and clouds, and near normal temperatures, according to the National Weather Service El Paso.

Taking my cue from Saint Nick, himself, I checked the long-range forecast twice, and all the local weather peeps agree; Mother Nature is going to play nice on Christmas day.

Here’s what they say the weather models show:

• Christmas Eve - Christmas Eve morning will be in the low to mid-20s, but temperatures will warm to a high in the mid-40s to near 50 degrees. The day will see sunshine and light winds.

• Christmas Day – Christmas morning will start off cold with freezing temperatures very likely. The day will be partly cloudy with a high of 55.

The Last Time El Paso Had a White Christmas

A white El Paso Christmas is not a common occurrence. Barring a major Christmas day miracle, 2020 will be 23 years since El Pasoans woke up to snow on Christmas morning.

1997 was the last time it snowed on Christmas Day in El Paso. According to records culled from the National Weather Service website, we had one inch of snowfall that day. More recently, records show we got snow on Christmas Eve in 2011.

A little over 2 inches covered the ground that winter day. But that was nothing compared to the amount of snowfall we received on the day after Christmas in 2015.

A powerful storm system began moving into the area the evening of the 25th. The next day, on the 26th, light rain began changing into snow during the second half of the Sun Bowl game and continued through the evening. When it was all said and done, the El Paso desert had been transformed into a winter wonderland -- 8.1 inches of snow had fallen.