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We're nearly a week into December 2021 and Rochester is still waiting for its first big snowstorm of the season. Are we close to setting a record for no snow?

I'm probably in the minority here, but I wish it would snow here in southeast Minnesota! I looked longingly at all those reports of heavy snow up north and along Minnesota's North Shore Sunday, only to look outside and see nary a flake.

It got me to wondering if it's unusual for there to be no snow at this point in the year here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. I'd read before about the EARLIEST snowfall ever recorded here in Rochester (which was... September 26th!) and also about the average date we see snow every year (which is November 5th).

Last year, of course, we had snow EARLY-- as in October 20th, 2021, when between 3 and 5 inches of the white stuff fell over southeast Minnesota. Then it snowed again on October 25th, giving us a total of nearly 8 inches of snow for the month of October. But then it didn't snow again until January 2021-- marking perhaps one of the only seasons in Rochester where it snowed more in October than it did in December.

Amanda Morgan, meteorologist at KTTC and FOX-47, did a little more research and found that while we often DO have snow on the ground by now (we've usually seen at least an inch of snow by November 21st), we're not close to the record for the latest snowfall... which was February 18th, set back in 1961!

We also didn't see an inch of snow until mid-January in both 1968 and 2003, as well as January 2nd in 1966 and December 26th in 1933. Having some snow this time of year just makes it feel more like Christmas, doesn't it? Does anybody know a snow dance we can do? (And speaking of Christmas, keep scrolling to see which toys were big when you were a kid!)

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LOOK: The top holiday toys from the year you were born

With the holiday spirit in the air, it’s the perfect time to dive into the history of iconic holiday gifts. Using national toy archives and data curated by The Strong from 1920 to today, Stacker searched for products that caught hold of the public zeitgeist through novelty, innovation, kitsch, quirk, or simply great timing, and then rocketed to success.

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