File:Christmas Snow in the Midwestern United States (MODIS).jpg

English: In the early 1940s, Irving Berlin penned lyrics that proclaimed, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas”, starting an American love affair with the idea of a wintery, snow-covered scene on the popular holiday, which occurs each year on December 25. A fierce winter storm that battered North America from December 21-26, 2022, brought a white Christmas to a millions of people—but for most it was much more like a nightmare than a sweet dream.

From December 23-24, the storm’s atmospheric pressure dropped 35 millibars, meeting and exceeding the definition of a bomb cyclone, which is a 25 millibar drop in 24 hours. The more rapid the drop in atmospheric pressure, the stronger the winds generated. During this time, the storm was sweeping from Indiana into Ontario, moving eastward, generating winds measured as high as 79 mph (127 km/h) in Lackawanna, New York. The accompanying Arctic blast rapidly dropped temperatures to excruciating lows. For example, on December 21-23, temperatures in Denver, Colorado, dropped from 51 °F (11 °C) to −24 °F (−31 °C). Long-lasting white out conditions, severe cold, impassable snow depths, and widespread power outages was a deadly combination. As of December 28, the damage is still being assessed as roads are cleared and power restored in the hardest-hit areas near Buffalo, New York. Fatalities due to the storm have been estimated as high as 89, including 4 people living in Canada. The number of deaths in New York has risen to 38, with searches still ongoing.

On December 25, 2022, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) acquired a true-color image of snow across part of the Midwestern United States. Snow can be seen across ten states. The most northern tier visible includes, from west to east: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania. The tier south of those includes Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, western Virginia, and a bit of western Maryland. The most southerly states with snow seen here are Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.