Portland and elsewhere in Maine will have a white Christmas, but just barely.
Snow is likely after 3 a.m. Tuesday, with 1 to 2 inches possible, according to the National Weather Service. Another inch is possible before 2 p.m., when clouds will give way to sunshine. The temperature should reach about 31 degrees, just shy of freezing, making the day-old snow a little grayer and slushier.
The snow will be enough for the holiday to qualify as a white Christmas, the annually hoped-for weather event celebrated as an ode to the holiday by composer Irving Berlin early in World War II.
“It should stick around,” said Michael Clair, a meteorologist at the weather service office in Gray. “It’s cutting it a little close, but there’s a pretty good chance.”
Conditions won’t differ much in Lewiston and Waterville, he said.
The maximum Christmas snowfall in Portland was 12.5 inches in 2002, accordingto The Washington Post. But 1970 was the year the city had the …