ST. LOUIS – Halloween weather can set the stage for a spooky night. Think of how many stories begin with “A dark and stormy night…” However, here in the St. Louis area, that’s not the case. While searching the archives of St. Louis Halloween weather, the results surprised me.
The weather here on Oct. 31 in the nearly past 150 years has remained quite boring.
No significant storms, no big snow events, not even some crazy wind that knocked out power. I even asked the National Weather Service in St. Louis. Had I missed something?
Did such an interesting weather event take place? According to Warning Coordination Meteorologist Kevin Deitsch, “We have been pretty quiet on Halloween.”
One event that sticks out in my memory was a cold Halloween. In fact, I recall some snowflakes on the morning of Oct. 31, 2019. The climate report from that day shows a trace of snow fell at the airport.
I also remember having to bundle my boys in their winter coats over their costumes, which they protested. My little one, at the time, was three, and didn’t make it past a few houses for trick-or-treating, complaining about how cold his hands felt. My older one, six at the time, persevered and accumulated candy by the pound, but wanted to cut the evening short.
Halloween, 2019 broke the record for the coldest high temperature on that date. The mercury only rose to 38 degrees. And of the nearly 150 years of historical records, that was the first recording of only snow on that date.
Average temperatures for Halloween include a high of 63 degrees and a low of 42 degrees. 1968 saw the hottest temperature, when the mercury climbed to 88 degrees.
The coldest low temperature happened in 1878, with a temperature of 26 degrees. Two years prior noted the warmest low, 66 degrees on that date.
As for precipitation, the most rainfall happened in 1946 when 2.91 inches of rain fell and, as mentioned previously, the trace of snow in 2019. Another year documented snowflakes, 2017, but a mix of rain and snow.
This year doesn’t look all that impressive either. It seems like we will continue the quiet Halloween forecasts for at least another year. Temperatures will peak in the mid-60s during the day and should drop into the upper 50s for prime-time trick-or-treating.
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