With much of the area buried in several inches of snow just weeks ago and frigid temperatures, many people might have thought – or hoped – that we would have a white Christmas this year.

However, the majority of that snow has already melted. And with temperatures expected to be in the 40s the next few days – with a high near 48-50 degrees on Christmas Day – it will feel more like spring than winter this week.

The normal high temperature on Christmas Day is 34 degrees, while the normal low is 22 degrees.

National Weather Service meteorologist Rafal Ogorek isn’t surprised that the weather has taken such a turn this winter.

“It’s normal for weather patterns to switch during the course of the winter season,” he said. “You can go from a very cold period into a very mild period and vice versa. It’s not necessarily unusual for that to happen during the wintertime here.”

In general, it’s usually not in the cards for northern Illinois to have a white Christmas. Chicago has had a white Christmas – defined as one inch or more of snow on the ground – 41% of the time, based on National Weather Service data since 1884.

The last time the region had a white Christmas was in 2022.

“It’s milder than normal for this time of year, at least through Saturday it looks like,” Ogorek said.

On Saturday, the high temperature is expected to be near 52 degrees, according to the National Weather Service’s current seven-day outlook. After that, temperatures are then expected to nose dive into the 30s on Sunday.

Although this Christmas will be warmer than usual, it is far from the record set on Christmas Day in 1982, when the temperature hit 64 degrees.

The following year, temperatures went in the other direction. The low temperature for Christmas Day 1983 was 17 below zero, while the high was -5.

This year, northern Illinois area is experiencing a La Niña winter. La Niña refers to the periodic cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific.

A La Niña winter in the region typically means a greater chance for a wetter, snowier and potentially colder season.

Ogorek said the La Niña winter the area is experiencing “is a pretty weak La Niña.” Meteorological winter is from Dec. 1 through the end of February.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean the cold and the snowy conditions are restrained to that three month period, but that’s what we refer to as meteorological winter,” he said.