This Halloween is going to be a wet one with nearly an inch of rain forecasted with much of that falling during prime-time trick-or-treating.
Often times you hear people say "oh I remember when it snowed on Halloween" or "do you remember last year..." These conversations with people made me think about what really has gone on during Halloween in the past!
Here are some statistics for you from the past 10 years:
More often than not we've had precipitation on Halloween 70% of the time. If you count trace amounts, it pops the percentage to 90%, however a trace amount is nearly nothing for the day! Within the last 10 years it's snow twice but only two years ago in 2017 was it measurable at .10". The last time it rained over an inch was in 2013 when the Buffalo Airport picked up 1.22" ( this is the greatest amount of rain to fall on Halloween in 75 years) , it also was the warmest of the past 10 years at 67 degrees. Last year the high temperature was 58F and it rained nearly a third of an inch.
If you look at the data since 1980, we've only had two days where measurable snow has fallen for Halloween. 17 years ago just about 2 1/2 inches of snow was on the ground and the high temperature was 37! - this must have been the Halloween I remember trick-or-treating in my snowsuit! I don't remember four years prior when it was 72 degrees!
In the past four decades, the most recent 2009 - 2018 has the highest occurrence of precipitation, nearly just as much as the three previous decades combined. To answer the question, is it normal? As of recent, yes you are more likely to have some type of precipitation on Halloween than not. The further back you go the odds are less than 50/50!
10 years of data: 70% of Halloween had precip:
39 years of data: 38% of Halloween had precip.
75 years of data: 40% of Halloween had precip.
Check out this year's forecast for Halloween from our 7 First Alert Meteorologists.
If you would like to look at other Halloween stats you can find them at the NWS Buffalo website by clicking here.
Data From the National Weather Service of Buffalo Forecast Office
Halloween Almanac Data From 1980.
High Temperatures, Low Temperatures and Precipitation type
Year | High | Low | Precip |
1980 | 52 | 45 | 0.00 |
1981 | 64 | 40 | 0.00 |
1982 | 60 | 50 | 0.77 |
1983 | 57 | 27 | 0.00 |
1984 | 57 | 38 | T |
1985 | 63 | 37 | 0.00 |
1986 | 60 | 29 | 0.00 |
1987 | 55 | 37 | 0.00 |
1988 | 49 | 26 | 0.00 |
1989 | 72 | 47 | 0.47 |
1990 | 60 | 41 | 0.00 |
1991 | 57 | 39 | 0.00 |
1992 | 42 | 34 | 0.00 |
1993 | 37 | 32 | 0.48 (2.8" snow) |
1994 | 58 | 47 | 0.38 |
1995 | 43 | 38 | 0.10 |
1996 | 45 | 35 | 0.00 |
1997 | 64 | 42 | T |
1998 | 54 | 29 | 0.00 |
1999 | 62 | 46 | 0.01 |
2000 | 53 | 30 | 0.00 |
2001 | 58 | 40 | T |
2002 | 43 | 26 | 0.02 |
2003 | 69 | 56 | 0.00 |
2004 | 57 | 48 | T |
2005 | 58 | 44 | 0.00 |
2006 | 64 | 44 | 0.04 |
2007 | 66 | 43 | T |
2008 | 61 | 43 | 0.00 |
2009 | 63 | 45 | 0.59 |
2010 | 47 | 34 | T (T snow) |
2011 | 54 | 35 | 0.01 |
2012 | 46 | 40 | 0.10 |
2013 | 67 | 45 | 1.22 |
2014 | 49 | 42 | 0.10 |
2015 | 52 | 33 | T |
2016 | 50 | 32 | 0.00 |
2017 | 43 | 35 | 0.08 (0.1 snow) |
2018 | 58 | 44 | 0.28 |