Northland Winter Season Climate Stats and Records

This web page is a collection of winter climate statistics and records. Simply scroll down the page to get started, or use the table of contents on the right to navigate.

** Please note this page is not always up to date. For any official inquiries please email nws.duluth@noaa.gov **

The National Weather Service office in Duluth, MN after a snowstorm in 2007.

Top Daily Snowfalls

Seasonal and Monthly Snow Records

(Snow Season defined as the sum of snow totals from July 1st to June 30th)

Snowfall Averages 

• International Falls:  normally receives 71.0 inches of snow per snow season (07/01-06/30) (based on the 1981-2010 climate normals). 
• Duluth:  normally receives 86.1 inches of snow per season (07/01-06/30) (based on the 1981-2010 climate normals).
• Brainerd:  normally receives 47.1 inches of snow per season (07/01-06/30) (based on the 1981-2010 climate normals).

Earliest and Latest Snow

Consecutive Days With Measurable Snowfall 

Frost and Freeze Information (CAUTION under construction)

Frost (the formation of light ice crystals on the ground) occurs under light wind conditions with radiational cooling - that is, heat radiating away from the Earth's surface. Frost will form when temperatures at ground level fall to around 32 degrees. Because of different radiative properties, frost will often occur when the surface air temperature is still in the mid-30s. A freeze occurs when the air temperature measured at an observing site falls below 32 degrees. These temperature readings are taken at 2 meters above ground level, or about 6 feet.

• Duluth Airport: The average first frost occurs around September 13 at the airport, with 90% of the first fall frosts occurring by September 28. The average last spring frost occurs around June 5th, with 90% of the last spring frosts occurring by June 24th.

• Duluth Harbor:  The average first frost occurs around October 2nd at the harbor, with 90% of the first fall frosts occurring by October 25th. The average last spring frost occurs around May 30th, with 90% of the last spring frosts occurring by July 7th.

• International Falls:  The average first frost occurs around September 7th, with 90% of the first fall frosts occurring by September 20th. The average last spring frost occurs around June 7th, with 90% of the last spring frosts occurring by June 29th.

Why does the fall frost occur much later at the Duluth harbor, as opposed to on top of the hill by the airport? Basically, Lake Superior heats up during the summer months and water has a high heat content. Therefore, it takes awhile to heat up, or cool down a large body of water. When it gets really cold in inland areas in the fall, the areas right along the water will stay warmer because Lake Superior hasn't cooled down yet.

Extreme Cold Temperatures (CAUTION under construction)

Miscellaneous Climate Facts (CAUTION under construction)

• Wind chill records are not reliably kept. However, a notable bitter wind chill occurred on February 1, 1996 around 725pm. The temperature at Duluth was -25 degrees with a peak wind speed of 25 MPH. This produced a wind chill value of -58 degrees.

• The state record low temperature in Minnesota was recorded at Tower, Minnesota on February 2, 1996. The low was -60 degrees. This is also the coldest temperature ever recorded east of the Mississippi River.

• The state record low temperature in Wisconsin was recorded at Couderay on February 2nd and February 4th of 1996. The temperatures dipped down to -55 degrees both nights.

• At the Duluth International Airport, the record for consecutive hours below zero degrees temperature is 186 hours from January 12-20, 1994.

• The lowest pressure ever recorded at Duluth, Minnesota was 960.2 millibars or 28.35 inches of mercury. This occurred at 11:15 AM on October 26, 2010..

• The Minnesota state record snowfall in 24 hours was at Wolf Ridge ELC in Finland, WI where 36 inches of snow fell on January 7, 1994. The Minnesota state record snow depth was 88 inches from February 15th to February 21st in 1969.

• The Wisconsin state record snow depth was 83 inches on April 6, 1933 at the Turtle Flambeau Reservoir. The Wisconsin state record for 24-hour snowfall was outside of the NWS Duluth area of responsibility (26 inches at Neillsville).

• Hurley, Wisconsin in Iron County set a new Wisconsin state record for the most snowfall recorded in a single season in 1996-1997. The observer in Hurley measured 295.4 inches of snow, or 24.6 feet of snow.

• Hurley, Wisconsin averaged 174.4 inches of snow per season from the winter of 1987-1988 to the winter of 2009-2010. This makes it one of the snowiest spots east of the Rockies in the United States. This is largely due to it being situated in the Lake Superior snowbelt, where lake effect snows are prevalent in the winter months.