2.8” of Halloween Snow Falls on Northwest Suburbs

Winter arrived early this year in Minnesota with 2.8 inches of snow falling early Tuesday morning, as reported by a National Weather Service observer in New Hope.

That’s the most snow to fall on Halloween since the memorable Halloween blizzard of 1991, when nearly 23 inches of snow was recorded.

Plow crews in Crystal took to the streets early this morning to clear off snow and ice-coated roads. 

Crystal Street Superintendent Bill Bowman said the city was prepared and only needed a smaller fleet.

“Something like this, we’ll send out usually a three-truck route in the mains north and south of the city,” Bowman said. “For bigger snow, that’s everybody. We have 14 pieces of equipment that go out for a normal snowstorm.”

Bowman said this also serves as a good wintry reminder for drivers: leave early, drive cautiously and give plows plenty of room to work.

Construction work continued despite snowfall on Highway 169/Rockford Road bridge project in New Hope.

Chilly Halloweens Not Unusual

In addition to the snow, Halloween 2023 also brought freezing cold with a low overnight of 28 degrees. 

While snow on Halloween is unusual, chilly temps are not.

According to Steve Reckers, who provides weather data to the National Weather Service, there have been several recent years when temperatures dipped into the 20s.

Recent low temperatures include:

• 2019: 25 degrees
• 2014: 21 degrees
• 2012: 21 degrees
• 1996: 15 degrees* (this is record low dating back to 1956)

Interestingly, from 1956 to 1990, there were no Halloween days when the high temperature was below 40 degrees, according to Reckers’ data. Since then Reckers has recorded 10 Halloweens with high temperatures below 40 degrees.

Corey Bork contributed to this report.

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