Those anticipating a white Christmas this year might be in luck.

NIU meteorologist Allen Staver predicts a 65 percent chance of a white Christmas this year, with lower than normal temperatures for the end of the month, in spite of the spring-like warmth experienced thus far.

“That means a few below-zero readings before the year is done,” Staver said.

Dan Watt, NIU weather service director, predicts a 10-inch accumulation for the month of December, while the average is 9.4 inches. The Rockford Weather Service attributes higher snowfall totals to greater activity along the jet stream.

Apparently, the jet stream is in its normal position; however, the storms are tracking farther south, picking up additional moisture, before heading north and causing precipitation.

Staver explains lower temperatures in the middle of the month will bring an early snowfall and white Christmas.

In a less scientific approach, the 1990th Farmer’s Almanac predicts a “real old-fashioned winter” east of the Rocky Mountains, with below-normal temperatures over much of the region. It also predicts a warmer than usual spring and summer, but a cool and wet fall.

So why does DeKalb feel like the coldest spot on Earth?

“It is common for our low temperatures to be a couple degrees cooler than Rockford and other major cities because we are not as tightly packed of a community,” Watt said. “While we are a packed community, we have nothing surrounding us.”

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