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MPR News Staff

No, Minnesota, it didn't snow every Halloween when you were a kid

Halloween blizzard
Steve Dale's daughter Katy, then 10 years old, sits in a snowbank with the family dalmatian Rosy and some buried pumpkins during the Halloween blizzard of 1991, in Bloomington, Minn.
Photo courtesy Steve Dale

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Yes, we all remember the 1991 Halloween blizzard. It was bad and it really messed up Minnesota's Halloween fun.

But don't start bragging about how as a kid you trudged 5 miles in the snow every Halloween to trick-or-treat.

Data posted Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources State Climatology Office show measurable snow on Halloween in the Twin Cities is as unlikely as being frightened by your dad's Frankenstein costume.

Or, as the climatology office folks put it, "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."

Measurable precipitation has occurred on Halloween only 26 percent of the time in the Twin Cities, or 37 times out of 143 years. 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.

The DNR also notes that the warmest Halloween on record was 83 degrees in 1950; the coldest maximum temperature was 26 degrees back in 1873.

Halloween blizzard 1991
Danny Sigelman, right, and his brother Jon shoveled snow in front of their Golden Valley home during the Halloween blizzard of 1991. "I think our mom must've asked us to shovel the driveway," he said. "We thought we'd have some fun and get down to our skivvies."
Photo courtesy of Danny Sigelman

The walking dead have been pretty comfy, weather-wise, the past decade or so, with Halloween data showing mostly zero or trace amounts of precipitation. "There hasn't been a Halloween washout since 1997," the DNR notes.

And, so far, the Twin Cities Halloween forecast is looking not so bad: