THE WEATHER BEAT · OCT 30

The Halloween Blizzard of 1991: Duluth's snowiest day on record, 24.1 inches on November 1

Duluth measured 24.1 inches on November 1, 1991 and Two Harbors 24.0 inches the next day, each its snowiest day on record, in what NWS Duluth calls the.

By the Weather Rock October 30, 2026, 8:18 p.m. · 4 min read

GOES satellite view of the event region — Morning satellite view of Minnesota and western Wisconsin on October 30, 2026, over the gauges that set their snowiest-day records on November 1 and 2, 1991. Image: NOAA GOES-East GeoColor via NASA GIBS, 2026-10-30 13:00Z.

Key points

The Duluth gauge measured 24.1 inches of snow on November 1, 1991. That is the snowiest day in its record with us, which runs from 1948 to 2025.
Two Harbors measured 24.0 inches the next day, November 2, 1991. That is also its snowiest day, in a record that runs from 1894 to 2026.
NWS Duluth calls this the Halloween Blizzard of 1991. Our archive shows eight more Minnesota and Wisconsin gauges with their snowiest day on those same two dates.

The snow arrived with Halloween. NWS Duluth describes the storm as starting around Halloween, 1991. During the height of trick-or-treating it began as rain, changed quickly to freezing rain, and was snow before the evening was over. It kept snowing for two more days. The page says the storm is still remembered by many people across the region.

Our archive of NOAA daily station reports has the numbers for the second and third days. On November 1, 1991, the Duluth gauge measured 24.1 inches, the most it has ever recorded in one day. The next day Two Harbors, up the North Shore, measured 24.0 inches. That gauge has the longer record of the two, going back to 1894.

The snow was not a Duluth story alone. Gauges across the Twin Ports region, the Iron Range, western Wisconsin and the Twin Cities each set their own snowiest day on one of those two dates, and none of those records has fallen since.

Date	Town	Gauge	Record	Record kept
Nov 1, 1991	Duluth MN	Duluth	24.1 in, snowiest day	1948 to 2025
Nov 2, 1991	Two Harbors MN	Two Harbors	24.0 in, snowiest day	1894 to 2026
Nov 1, 1991	St. Croix Falls	St Croix Falls	22.0 in, snowiest day	1950 to 2026
Nov 1, 1991	Wright MN	Wright 3 E	19.2 in, snowiest day	1961 to 2026
Nov 2, 1991	Eveleth MN	Eveleth Wwtp	19.0 in, snowiest day	1986 to 2026
Nov 1, 1991	Hibbing MN	Hibbing Chisholm Hibbing Ap	18.6 in, snowiest day	1962 to 2025
Nov 1, 1991	Richfield MN	Minneapolis-St Paul Intl Ap	18.5 in, snowiest day	1938 to 2025
Nov 1, 1991	Luck WI	Luck	18.0 in, snowiest day	1971 to 2026
Nov 1, 1991	Litchfield MN	Litchfield	18.0 in, snowiest day	1908 to 2026

*Source: myweatherrock's archive of NOAA daily station records (GHCN-Daily), stations USW00014913, USC00218419, USC00477464, USC00219173, USC00212645, USW00094931, USW00014922, USC00474894 and USC00214778. The storm description is from the NWS Duluth page on the Halloween Blizzard of 1991. The archive lists the Duluth gauge under the Hermantown label; it is the Duluth station.*

Look at the record-kept column. Two Harbors has reported since 1894 and Eveleth only since 1986, yet both set their snowiest day within a day of each other. Which of these records would you expect to be hardest to beat, and why?

This is a look back at a historic weather day, not emergency information. For current conditions and warnings see weather.gov and your local officials.

The rock's live forecast for the places in this story