Remembering Minnesota’s 1991 Halloween Blizzard

The 1991 Halloween snow storm is often the topic of discussion around this time every year--especially when we have snow in the forecast like today.

I was just a year old when all hell broke loose across the state, but it's a story I'll never be able to forget.

I've been told the story more than a hundred times by parents, friends, teachers, co-workers and random other people over the years. But, was the storm actually as bad as everyone makes it out to be? Well, yes, yes it was.

The 1991 Halloween blizzard was responsible for killing 22 people, injuring more than 100, shutting down long stretches of I-90, I-35 and I-29 and causing more than $67 million in damage.

To make things worse, weather forecasters severely under predicted the snowfall totals. They were advising that the storm would produce up to a foot of snow, and the Twin Cities got hit hard.

Snow started falling late that Halloween afternoon and by midnight there was more than eight inches of snow that had fallen in the Twin Cities. Think about that, eight inches of snow fell over the course of about eight hours. That's insane! The storm didn't end on Halloween. Snow continued to fall for days, and by Nov. 3 Duluth had recorded more than 36 inches of snow--a record amount at that time.

More than 900 schools in Minnesota completely shut down and many homes were without power.

To put it into perspective, if you wanted to experience a similar snow storm that early in Minnesota you'd need a time machine to be able to travel back to Oct. 16, 1880. They recorded snow drifts more than 20 feet high. It was the worst storm to hit this area in over 90 years.

NO, THANK YOU. I'm not too thrilled about the snow in our forecast today but I keep reminding myself that it could be worse.