October Snowstorm

It started snowing again today. At first the snow was a light snow that reminded me of “Stranger Things” other world type of snow. But now it’s turned into a full on snow storm with a forecasted total of 6 inches accumulated when it’s all over. In Minnesota six inches isn’t out of the ordinary, but on October 20th it’s pretty much out of the norm. As a kid I don’t remember it snowing this early in the year, except for the big Halloween blizzard of 1991 which any Minnesotan over the age of 35 will gladly tell you about.

I was curious about how early it usually snows in Minnesota so I looked back over some weather timelines as well as my own social media feeds and found that over past couple of years it has snowed early in October – almost like clockwork. They’ve all been pretty light but snow that doesn’t stick around when it’s this early in the year but seeing snow in October can really be brutal on your mood.

List of Minnesota snow records

During my in depth research of early snowfalls I found this table on Wikipedia with the list of Minnesota weather records. Here’s the snow records with the earliest recorded snowfall being August 31.

Event[3] Measurement Date Location
Earliest recorded snow[1] Trace August 31, 1949 Duluth
Earliest measurable snow 0.3 inch (1 cm) September 14, 1964 International Falls
Latest recorded snow 1.5 inches (4 cm) June 4, 1935 Mizpah
Most snow, 24 hours 36 inches (91 cm) January 7, 1994 Lake County
Most snow, one storm 47 inches (119 cm) January 6–8, 1994 Lake County
Most snow, one month[7] 66 inches (168 cm) March, 1965 Collegeville
Most snow, season 170 inches (432 cm) 1949 – 1950 Grand Portage State Park
Deepest snowpack[7] 75 inches (191 cm) March 28, 1950 Pigeon River Bridge
Most fatalities, winter storm[8] up to 200 January 12–13, 1888 Statewide


As it’s “Stranger Things” snowing out I’m listening to Cattails by Big Thief. It’s has a very nice mellow sound that goes great with this kind of weather.