It won’t happen this year. But has the Mississippi Coast ever had a white Christmas?

Christmas in South Mississippi will be mild and possibly rainy, with little chance of freezing temperatures that could cover the Coast in ice or snow.

The weather this year will be “not too cold but also not seriously warm,” said Danielle Manning, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Slidell. Highs near Gulfport will be in the upper 60s to 70 degrees, she said, and lows could reach the lower 50s.

There is a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, which could mean hit or miss rain in the afternoon.

Has the MS Coast ever had a white Christmas?

The National Weather Service has never officially recorded snow on Christmas Day in the Gulfport area, said Meteorologist Lauren Nash. Its records date to 1893.

But true winter has come before. The Mississippi Sound froze in 1989, and people ice skated on the beach in Bay St. Louis. A freeze struck Dec. 23 that year and snow flurries were reported Dec. 25, according to Sun Herald archives. Flurries do not drop enough snow to register in the National Weather Service records, Nash said.

The coldest Christmas ever recorded in Gulfport was 11 degrees in 1983, Manning said, and the high was only 28. The low in Pascagoula that Christmas was 6 degrees. But it still did not snow.

Manning also said it was possible snow fell across the Coast in 2004 even though it was not recorded at the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport. Snow fell in New Orleans on Christmas that year.

The last measurable snow at the airport was January 2014, Manning said, when the National Weather Service registered 0.2 inches.

Normal December lows on the Mississippi Coast are in the 40s. But the weather also varies dramatically: Nash said the warmest recorded Christmas Day in Gulfport was 76 degrees.

“It’s the weather in the South,” she said. “We could get a little bit of everything.”

Justin Mitchell contributed reporting.