Duluth and St. Cloud Break All-Time Seasonal Snowfall Records

deep snow
The St. Louis River cutting through the deep snow, as seen from the Swinging Bridge at Jay Cooke State Park on March 18, 2023.
Image credit: Minnesota DNR State Climatology Office

With a wintry blast early in the morning on Thursday April 20, Duluth received two inches of snow, breaking its all-time seasonal snowfall record. Additional snow after that raised the season total to 140.1 inches. The old record was 135.4 inches, during the legendary 1995-96 winter.

Indeed, the winter of 2022-23 has been one of the snowiest on record across much of Minnesota. In addition to Duluth's new record, St. Cloud recorded 88.2 inches for the season, just edging out the old record of 87.9 inches from 1964-65. The Twin Cities recorded 90.3 inches, putting it in third place. These stations all have over 100 years of consistent snowfall records. Rochester was ranked #12 with 63.3 inches, and Minnesota's other "first-order" station at International Falls  finished above normal, at 84.2 inches, but not in significant or extreme territory.

The vast majority of the state received above-normal for snowfall, with the only exceptions in the extreme south. The National Weather Service Cooperative observer at the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center reported 156.1 inches, and the Cooperative observer 7 miles northwest of Two Harbors was close behind with 151.4 inches. The official state record for seasonal snowfall is 170.5 inches, from the Pigeon River Bridge near Grand Portage during the 1949-50 season.

snowfall graph
Graph of 2022-23 seasonal snowfall compared to normal and record values at Minnesota's five major climate observing stations.
Image credit: Minnesota DNR State Climatology Office

This snow season was marked by frequent and often large winter storms. Although most parts of the state have had "breaks in the action" lasting two weeks or more at times, in general, Minnesota had a steady diet of accumulating winter storms since mid-November. The snowstorm and snowfall production was so consistent that for the first time in its history (back to the winter of 1884-85), the Twin Cities recorded five straight months, (November through March) with snowfall of 10 inches or more. The persistent, heavy snowfall, led to a long period with continuous snow cover, ranking 9th longest on record in the Twin Cities.

Precipitation was quite high during this snowy winter as well. In Duluth, the period November 1 through April 15 was the wettest on record, and the Rochester, St. Cloud, and the Twin Cities were all #4 or #3 all-time for the same period.

Below are rankings for seasonal snowfall at Duluth, and seasonal snowfall and consecutive days with at least an inch of snow cover in the Twin Cities.

 

Ranking of the Season 
Snowfall from 1886 to 2023
Duluth
Rank Year       Value
---------------------- 
1.  2022-2023   140.1*
2.  1995-1996   135.4 
3.  1949-1950	131.8
4.  2013-2014	131.0
5.  2012-2013	129.4
6.  1996-1997	128.2
7.  1968-1969	121.0
8.  1988-1989	119.1
9.  1970-1971	116.9
10. 1964-1965	110.9
*final tally

Ranking of Season 
Snowfall from 1885 to 2023
Minneapolis-St Paul
Rank  Year       Value 	
----------------------
1.  1983-1984	98.6
2.  1981-1982	95.0
3.  2022-2023   90.3*
4.  1950-1951	88.9
5.  2010-2011	86.6	
6.  1916-1917	84.9	
7.  1991-1992	84.1	
8.  1961-1962	81.3	
9.  1951-1952	79.0	
10. 1966-1967	78.4 
*final tally

Twin Cities Continuous Snow Cover 
of 1 inch or more  
Rank    Time Period	  No. of Days
-----------------------------------
1.)  1964-11-26 to 1965-04-10	136
2.)  1950-11-22 to 1951-04-04	134
3.)  1981-11-19 to 1982-03-28	130
4.)  1978-11-17 to 1979-03-22	126
5.)  1985-11-22 to 1986-03-24	123
6.)  1996-11-20 to 1997-03-21	122
7.)  2000-12-07 to 2001-04-04	119
8.)  1971-11-23 to 1972-03-18	117
9.)  2022-11-30 to 2023-03-25	116*
10.) 1955-11-28 to 1956-03-21	115
11.) 1952-11-25 to 1953-03-18	114
12.) 2013-12-04 to 2014-03-26	113
*final tally  

 

Updated June 22, 2023

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