Via climatologist (and former streets.mn podcast guest) Kenny Blumenfeld, here’s a chart showing the percentage probability of having snow on the ground in the Twin Cities.
How weird is it to have no snow on December 18th? Here’s your answer:
As you can see, it’s rare but not unprecedented to have seen no snow this late in the “winter”. For the record, Kenny also made a film called “The Story of Winter” all about how winter is rapidly disappearing from our Minnesota landscape and how that is actually quite sad.
I’d say 1/3 for today and ~1/4 chance of a brown Christmas is not actually that rare.
What’s been truly unusual this year is the sustained warmth (nights above freezing)