MINNEAPOLIS — When it comes to Halloween in Minnesota, you can expect to hear the sounds of ghosts and goblins. But you can also expect to hear the familiar sound of lifelong Minnesotans (Gen X or older) collectively reminding the never-not-reminded rest of Minnesota about that one time it snowed a lot on Halloween.
While WCCO meteorologist Joseph Dames says this year’s Halloween forecast calls for some snowflakes, it will be nothing compared to the wave of white that plopped down on the area 33 years ago.
The Halloween blizzard of 1991 is a story that is brought up year after year as a badge of honor for those who lived through it. Blustery winds and plummeting temperatures on Halloween night made going house-to-house for trick-or-treaters or just about anywhere a challenge.
But Halloween night was just the start.
On the spooky night itself, Minneapolis-St. Paul got just over eight inches of snow. And on the next day? Another 18.5 inches. The day after that another inch fell. And on Nov. 3, a few more tenths of an inch, bringing a whopping 28.4 inches of snow, the biggest single storm still on record.
But there was an even bigger event roughly a decade prior. Two consecutive snowstorms hit the Twin Cities just days apart in January of 1982. Those two waves resulted in 37.4 inches, which is significantly more than even the famed 1991 Halloween blizzard.
Former WCCO team member reminisces
Former WCCO Meteorologist Paul Huttner remembers the around-the-clock updates on a blustery Nov. 1 morning.
“It came fast and was a shock,” Huttner recalled. “We’re saying that’s going to be more than 20 inches of snow! That’s not really going to happen, right?”
As the Twin Cities woke up, the snow picked up, at times falling two inches an hour. The wet, heavy snow collapsed rooftops and stranded firefighters. Police swapped their squads for snowmobiles to navigate the roads while others used skis to get down the street.
“As a meteorologist, you always want to work the big storm,” Huttner said. “As I saw there that morning, I knew it was huge. I had no idea this would stand as the biggest snowstorm in Twin Cities history as I sit here 30 years later.”
That blizzard left mountains snow on the ground. It melted away about a week later, but we picked up another 14 inches over Thanksgiving. And that snow stuck around until early March.
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