White Christmas to miss us?

The 10-day forecasts are out, giving a glimpse of the weather for Christmas Day.

Sorry, new-fallen snow fans, but don't expect to see white stuff on lawns between Malvern and Moorestown.

Flakes will form and fall around some northern parts of the nation over the next week and a half, but none seem likely to even dust the Philadelphia area.

Tonight, some flurries might fall in southern Delaware, northeastern Maryland and Virginia, while Philly probably won't even need to use the wipers, forecasters say.

Early next week, a storm sweeping our way out of Texas should leave a band of snow from Kansas City to Detroit, but Pennsylvania and New Jersey are likely to get rain, according to AccuWeather.

As for Christmas weekend, northern New England has a good shot, "with clipper systems expected to lay down some snow leading up to the holiday," meteorologist Alex Sosnowski states at AccuWeather.com.

But not even New York and Boston are expecting snow, though Albany and Syracuse could get some, according to weather.com.

Sosnowski does give one hint of hope, that an Atlantic Coast storm would develop next weekend, "creating a last-minute chance at snow for portions of the Northeast coast."

Historically, though, White Christmases are rare in Philadelphia. Only seven times since 1958 has Dec. 25 dawned with an inch or more on the ground, according to the National Weather Service: 2009 (8 inches), 1998 (1 inch), 1966 (12 inches), 1963 (5 inches), 1961 (2 inches), 1960 (1 inch) and 1959 (1 inch).

At least an inch fell on Dec. 25 three times: 2002 (1.1 inches), 1969 (4.1 inches) and 1962 (1.5 inches).

Only two other years (1993 and 1976, 0.2 inches each) did more than a trace fall.

Counting trace amounts, only 20 of the last 53 Christmases could claim to be "white."

To see charts for Philadelphia and Allentown, go to: www.erh.noaa.gov/phi/xmasclimate.html.