Fall Flurries: Here Are The Earliest Dates Its Snowed In Minnesota

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We've all heard about that infamous Halloween Blizzard, but when are the earliest dates it's snowed in the fall in Minnesota?

If you've lived here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes for any length of time, you know how fickle Mother Nature can be in the fall. Like this year, for instance. Last week, we had temperatures in the 80s with summer-like humidity that made it feel more like August instead of October.

This weekend, low temperatures are in the upper 20s and low 30s across much of the Bold North with the forecast calling for flurries or even some measurable snow in some parts of the state. So just when does our first snowfall usually happen here in Minnesota?

Well, that depends on what we're actually calling 'snow'. Reports of flurries, like parts of the state up north have already experienced, aren't really what the weather-folk call 'measurable snow.' So it's kind of a grey area. You might well see some furious flurries but because it didn't stick on the ground, it doesn't officially count as our official first snow.

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the earliest one-inch snowfall ever recorded in the Twin Cities was on September 26th, 1942! Yikes. The average date the Twin Cities sees a one-inch snowfall is November 16th, and the latest date in the season the metro ever saw a one-inch snowfall was on January 9th, 1945.

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Of course, there are also reports of parts of the North Star State getting snow even earlier than that, like in June. Or August. That's right. Snow. In Minnesota. In the middle of summer!?!

While there have been several stories and tall tales about Minnesotans witnessing freak snowfalls up north near Ely or Brainerd on the 4th of July, none of those stories have ever been actually confirmed. But there HAVE been summer snows validated by verifiable authorities here in Minnesota, the DNR says.

"As it stands right now the latest recorded measurable snow in Minnesota remains at 1.5 inches at Mizpah in Koochiching County on June 4, 1935, and the earliest documented snow in Minnesota is a trace that fell at the Duluth Airport on August 31, 1949," the DNR says.

If I were King of the Weather for Minnesota, I'd pick the weekend before Thanksgiving for our first snow. That way, a little white stuff on the ground heading into the short Thanksgiving week would help us all get in the holiday spirit, but we could still enjoy some genuine Minnesota fall weather up until then. Can somebody make that happen?!?

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