A white Christmas in Denver is not rare, but certainly not common either. Historically, 38% of Christmas Days have had snow on the ground and only 15% have had snow falling.

This year could beat those odds with two chances of snow the week leading up to Christmas Day, and our recent snowfall to boot.

For some perspective, here are the top snow totals of snow that fell on Christmas:

• 2007 - 7.8"
• 1894 - 6.4"
• 2014 - 3.4",
• 2015 - 2.3",
• 1912 - 1.7".

Clearly, Christmas isn't really known for big snows. Also, pretty remarkable that three of the top five have occurred in the last decade.

Here's a look at the odds of a white Christmas across the country from NOAA. Those whites just west of Denver are where you want to head if you want a sure-bet white Christmas!

One system will hit the mountains Tuesday and Wednesday. In this setup, the chance for snow falling on the city is quite low. Just the right wind direction could pull snow in from the hills but that's only a 10 percent probability as I see it now.

So, that brings our attention to the second chance of snow. A much stronger system will develop within the region and many of our surrounding states will see snow by Friday through the weekend. Colorado will have some areas of heavy snowfall, too.

The path of the system remains the question and a big one to those of us in the metro areas hoping for a snow on Christmas, as we discussed yesterday. It does look like seeing snow will be possible both Christmas Eve and Day. Snowfall amount will be judged on the eventual path of the storm, which may track too far north for appreciable snowfall in the city. Time will tell.

Anyone with any travel plans Friday through the weekend should pay close attention to this storm as it will bring travel impacts to Colorado and the surrounding states.