White Christmas and west Texas don’t usually go together, unless it’s to say that the area doesn’t get many white Christmases. However, there have been a few times when people in west Texas have seen the magic of a snowy Christmas.
The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) says that a “White Christmas” is when there is at least an inch of snow on December 25. This means that it must either snow an inch on Christmas or there must still be an inch of snow from the day before.
San Angelo Christmas Snowfall Data
| Year | Snow Amount |
| 1926 | 2.0″ |
| 1939 | 1.5″ |
| 1974 | .01″ |
Abilene Christmas Snowfall Data
| Year | Snow Amount |
| 1939 | 4.0″ |
| 1987 | 1.5″ |
| 1975 | 0.2″ |
| 2012 | 0.1″ |
Official snowfall data exists for Abilene and San Angelo, the two largest cities within the NWS San Angelo County Warning Area.
According to the tables above, Abilene has had three “official” White Christmases while San Angelo has experienced two, dating back over 100 years ago. More recently, in 2009, Abilene had a Christmas Eve snowfall resulting in three inches of snow still on the ground come Christmas morning. This was also the last White Christmas Abilene has seen since.
As for San Angelo, “a White Christmas has not been observed since before Irving Berlin ever put his famous song into words,” said the NWS. A Christmas day with at least 1 inch of snow has not occurred in San Angelo since before World War II.
The NWS calculated the probability of each location having a White Christmas, as slightly above 2% in Abilene and just under 2% in San Angelo.
