White Christmases are on forecasters radars People in north want to know if they'll have snow, but why?

Spokane, Wash., has a white Christmas about 70 percent of the time. This shot along the Spokane River was taken on Dec. 1, 2006.

SPOKANE, Wash. - Bing Crosby didn't have to dream of a white Christmas — he could bank on it.

The crooner was from Spokane, a city that is among the most likely to have a white Christmas each year. According to weather experts, Spokane has a white Christmas about 70 percent of the time.

In the United States, only a few high-latitude cities beat those odds: Duluth, Minn. (97 percent) Anchorage, Alaska, (90 percent), Marquette, Mich., (90 percent) and Concord, N.H. (87 percent).

Crosby's song tapped into a primal need for many living in the northern latitudes, where the notion of a white Christmas takes on mythic proportions. But why is snow important to a holiday celebrating the birth of a man in the arid climate of the Middle East?

"I think that it's simply because of the picture-perfect image of snow on Christmas that is constantly put into our heads through Christmas advertising and images of Santa Claus at the North Pole," said Karin Bumbaco, assistant state climatologist for Washington.

"I think Americans prefer a white Christmas just because it's drilled into our heads," said Bumbaco, whose cynical view is perhaps the result of working in Seattle, which has a white Christmas just 8 percent of the time.