It looks like it's going to be a white Christmas in the Capital Region — possibly the whitest in a decade.

The National Weather Service is forecasting 1 to 2 inches of snow overnight into Christmas morning. If those projections hold, it would mark the first time since 2006 that more than a trace amount of snow fell on Christmas, according to weather service records. That year, 0.1 inches fell.

A trace amount of snow fell on Christmas Day 2011, but the last time the Albany area saw more than an inch of snow on Christmas was 2002, when a massive storm buried the region in 19.2 inches of snow, a record for the holiday, according to weather service records. Albany also saw trace amounts of snow on Christmas Day in 2003, 2008 and 2009.

Temperatures will be just below freezing Christmas morning and peak around 35 degrees in the afternoon, according to weather service projections.

Snowy Christmases are relatively rare in the Capital Region. Since 1889, when the weather service began recording snowfall data, there have been just 13 Christmases with an inch of snowfall or more recorded in Albany.

On 51 other Christmases since 1889, Albany has seen between a trace of snow and 0.9 inches, according to weather service records.

The Christmas snowfall will be followed by another storm later this week, the weather service said. Beginning Wednesday night and into Thursday morning, a storm is expected to drop 2 to 6 inches of snow on the Capital Region, the weather service said.

This week's tandem storms should start pushing the season's annual snowfall total back toward the average for the date.

Just 0.8 inches of snow has fallen in Albany this season, more than 11 inches less than the 12.2-inch average for the date, according to weather service data. At this time last year, 6.1 inches of snow had fallen in Albany.

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