Every year, the National Weather Service dutifully reminds Lubbock of something residents already know deep in their wind-chapped souls: we don’t get White Christmases—we get “dry, windy, and vaguely disappointing.” According to more than a century of data, Lubbock has only managed 15 Christmas Days with snow on the ground or falling, which is about a 15% chance, or roughly the same odds as TxDOT painting a straight lane line.
Sure, there was that magical 2009–2012 hot streak where Lubbock scored snowfall three out of four years—but don’t let that fool you. That was a statistical accident, like Tech beating a ranked team or your neighbor not overfilling the dumpster. Since then, we’ve spent most Christmases enjoying temperatures in the 50s and 60s, because nothing says “holiday spirit” like a December heatwave and a suspiciously warm gust of dirt to the face.
Officially, the bar for a “White Christmas” is at least one inch of snow—something Lubbock has accomplished a grand total of six times in over 100 years. Six. That’s fewer than the number of times you’ve had to replace your windshield due to flying gravel this month.
The NWS also includes fun Christmas trivia, like how 1955 somehow hit 76 degrees, 1924 crashed to -1, and 1939 blessed the city with both its wettest and snowiest Christmas on record—clearly an attempt by the climate to keep things interesting before losing interest for nine decades.
And just to rub salt (or sand) in the wound, they show a national map of White Christmas probability where West Texas lights up like a sad beige void of “lol no.” Only small parts of Parmer and Castro counties sneak into the 11–25% category, because apparently optimism stops west of I-27.
But hey—who needs snow when you have 30 mph winds, tumbleweeds the size of compact cars, and a holiday tradition of telling your kids, “No sweetie, that’s not fog—that’s dust”?