Halloween megastorm still the ‘storm of record’ 27 years later

October 30, 2018 12:31 PM

It's hard to believe it's been 27 years since the infamous 1991 Halloween megastorm.

MPR halloween-blizzard01 — “These photos were taken in north Minneapolis … actually next door to the house I lived in, since we didn’t go much further trick or treating,” writes Taylor Dahlin of Minneapolis (in the mouse hat). Image courtesy of Taylor Dahlin.

Some of you know that storm was my big break in this business as a 20-something rookie meteorologist at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. I've written about my megastorm experience before.

I'm still amazed that the 1991 Halloween blizzard remains the biggest single snowfall event for the Twin Cities, Duluth, and much of eastern Minnesota.

Storm of record

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The Halloween megastorm is still the biggest snowstorm on record for the Twin Cities, Duluth and most of eastern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin.

MSP top 20 snows w titles — Top 20 snowfalls in the Twin Cities. Data via Minnesota DNR Climate Working Group.

Note on the graphic above that the biggest snowfall since 1991 (17.1 inches) is the "domebuster" in December of 2010. That impressive snowfall total is still nearly a foot below the megastorm.

The third biggest snowfall since 1991 (15.8 inches) happened just last April with the Dayton's monkey blizzard.

So the 1991 Halloween megastorm is standing the test of time as the storm of record in much of Minnesota.

Here's a closer look at the range of Halloween weather conditions from the Minnesota DNR State Climatology Office.

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