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Parts of northern Minnesota could some flurries early Thursday or Friday morning, but when in the season do we here in Rochester usually see the real first snow?

Well, it depends on what we're actually calling 'snow'. Reports of flurries, like parts of Minnesota, could see later this week aren't really what the weather folk call 'measurable snow.' So when it comes to calling our first official snowfall, it's kind of a grey area. You might well see some furious, white out-type flurries but because they didn't stick to the ground, it doesn't officially count as our first snow.

In fact, according to former ABC-6 morning meteorologist Cindy Morgan, and as we found out earlier this week, the earliest date there was measurable snow at Rochester International Airport was... September 26th! Yikes. That's a little early, isn't it?!? Thankfully that wasn't the case this year.

Meanwhile, Cindy says the latest in the season RST has seen our first measurable snow was... December 19th. Which, on the other hand, seems a little late, doesn't it? I mean, on December 19th, it's under a week until Christmas at that point-- and hopes of a white Christmas were probably getting pretty grim.

So while those are the extremes, when is the average date we see some measurable snow here in Rah-Rah-Rochester? Well, Cindy reports that'd be... November 5th, which, if you ask me, still seems a wee bit early-- heck, it's not even a week after Halloween. (And, we ALL know about how much snow fell during the infamous Minnesota Halloween Blizzard of 1991, right?)

If I were King of the Weather for Southeast 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 yet we could still enjoy some genuine Minnesota fall weather up until then. Can somebody make that happen?!?

And speaking of snow, this winter is set to be a strange one, as we try to navigate our way through the still-raging COVID-19 pandemic. Keep scrolling for a few things they're saying you might want to get now-- before the snow falls!

Listen to Curt St. John from 6 to 10 a.m. on Quick Country 96.5
and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 103.9 The Doc

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