Halloween Climatology in the Twin Cities
Pumpkins in the 1991 Halloween Blizzard.
Courtesy the Star Tribune
Halloween is typically a time of crunchy leaves on the ground, and a bit of chill in the air. High temperatures in the Twin Cities are generally in the 40's and 50's. It is more common for the daily high on Halloween to be in the 60's than in the 30's. 70's tend to be a bit rare, with only eight Halloween high temperatures being 70 degrees or above. The warmest Halloween on record was 83 degrees in 1950, with the second coldest maximum temperature on record arriving one year later with a high of 30 in 1951. The coldest Halloween maximum temperature was a chilly 26 degrees back in 1873. The last fifteen years have had some balmy Halloween afternoons with a 71 degrees in 2000, and some quite cool ones as well with a 34 in 2002. There hasn't been a Halloween washout since 1997.
Measurable precipitation has occurred on Halloween only 26% of the time in the Twin Cities, or 37 times out of 141 years. The most rain recorded was in 1979 with .78 inches. In 1991 .85 inches of precipitation fell, which was snow. In spite of the 1991 Halloween Blizzard, measurable snow on Halloween is about as rare as getting a full sized candy bar in your trick or treat bag. Since 1872 there's been enough snow to measure only six times: .6 in 1884, .2 in 1885, 1.4 in 1932, .4 in 1954, .5 in 1995 and of course 8.2 inches with the Halloween Blizzard of 1991.
Year by year climatology for Halloween for the Twin Cities 1872-2012 Tr = trace Year Max Min Pre 1872 42 35 0 1873 26 17 0 1874 36 21 0 1875 34 24 0 1876 54 39 0.01 1877 46 31 0 1878 37 15 0 1879 35 17 0 1880 54 30 0 1881 62 37 0 1882 54 33 0 1883 42 32 0 1884 50 36 Tr 1885 40 31 0.02 1886 72 50 0 1887 67 30 0 1888 59 44 0 1889 44 36 0 1890 36 22 Tr 1891 57 32 0 1892 47 39 0.15 1893 68 44 0 1894 42 36 0.05 1895 40 26 0 1896 42 30 0.08 1897 49 40 0.01 1898 51 26 0 1899 56 36 0 1900 55 44 0.63 1901 54 41 Tr 1902 65 40 0.02 1903 56 39 0 1904 66 41 0 1905 36 23 0 1906 44 26 0 1907 53 45 0.19 1908 40 24 0 1909 53 41 0.10 1910 56 37 0 1911 38 23 Tr 1912 44 29 0 1913 39 22 0 1914 68 48 0 1915 61 48 0 1916 55 36 0 1917 32 21 Tr 1918 38 28 Tr 1919 42 23 0 1920 40 34 0.15 1921 60 40 0 1922 55 49 0.52 1923 44 24 0 1924 62 44 0.10 1925 46 27 0 1926 38 29 0.05 1927 56 39 0 1928 41 35 0 1929 60 39 0.58 1930 34 22 0 1931 45 39 0.01 1932 33 29 0.06 1933 78 57 0 1934 38 28 Tr 1935 43 21 0.73 1936 64 36 0 1937 57 41 Tr 1938 70 46 0 1939 49 31 0 1940 52 42 0.09 1941 41 34 0 1942 49 34 0 1943 44 32 0.28 1944 74 48 0 1945 40 24 0.02 1946 58 38 0 1947 54 48 0 1948 68 45 0 1949 42 20 0 1950 83 51 0 1951 30 18 0 1952 66 38 0 1953 47 35 0 1954 38 21 0.04 1955 44 30 Tr 1956 50 43 Tr 1957 60 39 0 1958 66 37 0 1959 43 33 0.01 1960 45 39 Tr 1961 59 36 0 1962 45 24 0 1963 51 36 Tr 1964 66 49 0 1965 56 33 0 1966 50 31 Tr 1967 54 24 0 1968 63 40 0 1969 43 40 0.37 1970 40 38 0.01 1971 42 29 0 1972 41 38 0.05 1973 53 39 Tr 1974 64 56 0.48 1975 70 49 0 1976 55 25 0 1977 61 44 0.72 1978 56 31 0 1979 61 43 0.78 1980 55 34 0 1981 63 36 0 1982 51 34 0.19 1983 52 41 Tr 1984 44 24 0.18 1985 51 35 Tr 1986 55 33 0.30 1987 56 37 0 1988 56 32 Tr 1989 46 31 0 1990 70 38 0 1991 32 28 0.85 1992 44 38 0.03 1993 38 26 0 1994 54 29 0 1995 40 33 0.11 1996 32 16 Tr 1997 61 32 0.35 1998 47 44 0 1999 68 41 0 2000 71 46 0 2001 61 49 0 2002 34 24 0 2003 40 32 0 2004 44 40 Tr 2005 50 38 Tr 2006 36 24 0 2007 62 39 Tr 2008 62 41 0 2009 44 35 0.01 2010 49 30 0 2011 50 33 0 2012 52 25 0