Sleet, Rain to Bring ‘Brown’ U.S. Christmas

There was little chance of a white Christmas for most of the nation this year, as sleet and rain fell in the eastern half of the country Wednesday and dense fog blanketed the midsection, making travel hazardous.

“It will be a brown Christmas for most areas,” National Weather Service forecaster Bill Barlow said.

The only areas that had snow on the ground by Wednesday afternoon were northern and central New England, parts of New York, upper Michigan, northern Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota, as well as in parts of the Rocky Mountains.

“It doesn’t seem like there will be any significant snowfall around the country,” except for a possibility of snow in northern New England on Christmas, Barlow said.

In southern Michigan, where no snow was on the ground and only rain was in the immediate forecast, residents of at least one house were set for a white Christmas.

‘Snow’ Trucked From Arena

Seven cubic yards of “snow” scraped from an ice arena in the Detroit suburb of Southfield was delivered Tuesday by two dump trucks to the front yard of 8-year-old Jeff Dillingham.

Dillingham, winner of the Southfield Parks and Recreation Department’s Guaranteed White Christmas drawing, said the snow made him “the most popular kid on the block.”

Morning fog blanketed the nation’s midsection for a second straight day Wednesday, reducing visibility to near zero in parts of the Plains, across the Mississippi Valley and lower Great Lakes to the Ohio Valley.

Rain, heavy in some spots, fell from the mid-Atlantic states into Florida and across the Pacific Northwest. A few showers dotted the Texas panhandle, and freezing rain fell over the Ohio Valley, central Appalachians and parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland.

A winter storm warning for freezing rain and hazardous driving conditions was posted for the northern mountains of Pennsylvania. Travelers’ advisories for freezing rain and slippery driving conditions were posted for northwestern Virginia, western Maryland, northwestern and south-central Pennsylvania and central Illinois.