Warming could doom "white Christmas" BERLIN (Reuters) - The odds
of a "white Christmas" in temperate parts of the northern
hemisphere have diminished in the last century due to climate
change and will likely decline further by 2100, climate and
meteorology experts said. Even though heavy snow this year will
guarantee a white Christmas in many parts of Asia, Europe and
North America, an 0.7-degree Celsius (1.3 Fahrenheit) rise in
world temperatures since 1900 and projected bigger rises by 2100
suggest an inexorable trend. "The probability of snow on the
ground at Christmas is already lower than it was even 50 years
ago but it will become an even greater rarity many places by the
latter half of the century," said Friedrich-Wilhelm
Gerstengarber, climate researcher at the Potsdam Institute for
Climate Impact Research. In the northern German city of Berlin,
for instance, the chances of snow on the ground on December 24,
25 and 26 have fallen from 20 percent a century ago to
approximately 15 percent in 2008, he sa