A White Christmas in upstate New York is looking more and more likely. With several inches of snow already on the ground, it isn't a certainty, but is certainly likely, said Meteorologist Bob Hamilton of the National Weather Service in Buffalo.

The thought of waking up to snow on Christmas Day has become such a fixture in our collective psyches that even New Yorkers who hate the cold secretly hold out hope for a white holiday. And yet, we can't control the weather.