When Is the Earliest It’s Ever Snowed in Minnesota?

Our temperatures have been unseasonably warm this autumn in Minnesota so we haven't had to deal with it yet, but when is the earliest we've seen snowfall here in the Bold North?

If you've lived here for even a little while, you've no doubt heard about that infamous Halloween Blizzard that dumped a ton of snow over parts of Minnesota back in 1991. Heck, even last year, on October 31st, 2023, Mother Nature whipped up some cold and snow over parts of the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

True Minnesotans know how fickle Mother Nature can be. Like this year, for instance. After an extremely wet June with heavy rains and flooding, September and October have been bone dry, with much of the state experiencing drought conditions. And, outside of two days last week where overnight lows made it below freezing, temperatures have rebounded to nearly 20 degrees above the usual high temperatures for October over the past week.

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While more seasonal temperatures are in the forecast for much of the state this weekend, outside of a few areas up north, we haven't seen many of those snowflakes just yet. But 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.

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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.

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!?!

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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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