White Christmas in Wichita? Here’s when the forecast says to expect warming temps

Anyone wishing for a white Christmas in Wichita will have to wait another year.

While forecasts put the yearly chances of an inch of snow on the ground Christmas morning at around 10%, the National Weather Service’s latest forecast for the area shows a warm holiday — one that may break records.

“We’re still about seven days out. So, you know, things could change, but at the moment, we’re forecasting temperatures in the upper 60s to low 70s,” NWS forecaster James Cuellar told The Eagle Dec. 18. “So, maybe talking 25 degrees above average.”

The record high for Christmas Day in Wichita was a reported at 68 degrees Fahrenheit in 2019, Cuellar said. The average high temperature is 44 degrees, while the average low is 22 degrees, according to the agency.

Wichita’s warm Christmas is in line with most of the nation this year.

The federal Climate Prediction Center’s outlook for Christmas week shows the majority of the U.S. seeing warmer-than-average temperatures.

“The Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and New England have a much better chance of seeing the ‘classic’ Christmas weather you remember as a kid,” the weather service’s Dec. 15 X post reads.

What does the rest of December look like for Wichita?

Wichita is likely to see more warm weather for the remainder of December.

“We’re just going to continue on this warmer than normal track ... whenever you look at the Climate Prediction Center, just going through the end of the year, even after Christmas, there’s pretty, pretty high odds for above-normal temperatures to finish off the year,” Cuellar said.

And for Wichita, a white Christmas is rare. The city has only 13 such holidays since record keeping began in 1888.

According to the Climate Prediction Center, the three-month outlook for January through March shows Kansas experiencing equal chances of higher and lower temperatures.

Here’s the next week’s NWS forecast:

• Friday, Dec. 19: Sunny with a high near 53 degrees Fahrenheit and a low around 38 degrees
• Saturday, Dec. 20: Sunny with a high around 54 and a low around 29
• Sunday, Dec. 21: Sunny with a high around 51 and a low around near 40
• Monday, Dec. 22: Sunny with a high around 60 and a low around 44
• Tuesday, Dec. 23: Sunny with a high around 63 and a low around 45

This story was originally published December 19, 2025 at 5:00 AM.

Lindsay Smith

The Wichita Eagle

Lindsay Smith is a suburban news reporter for the Wichita Eagle, covering the communities of Andover, Bel Aire, Derby, Haysville and Kechi. She has been on The Eagle staff since 2022 and was the service journalism reporter for three years. She has a degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism from Wichita State, where she was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Sunflower, for two years. You can reach her via email at lsmith@wichitaeagle.com.