Not surprisingly, weather conditions on October 31st can vary dramatically from one year to the next in south central Nebraska. Just in the past 30 years, high temperatures in Grand Island have ranged from 26° to 77°, and lows have ranged from 13° to 54°! This story features a wealth of Halloween weather and climate information focused specifically on Grand Island, where October weather records date back 129 years to 1895.
Temperatures: According to the entire period of record, the warmest Halloween featured 82° in 1915, while the coldest low was 12° in 1923. Only 27-of-129 Halloweens on record (21%) have featured high temperatures of 70+° (most recently 75° in 2022). On the cold end of the thermometer, only 25-of-129 on record (19%) have seen low temperatures of 25°-or-colder (most recently 14° just last year). In recent years, a somewhat unusual/interesting trend has developed: Halloween 2023 was the 7th IN A ROW to feature a high temperature AT LEAST 19º colder/warmer than the year before (and alternating between colder/warmer each time!).
Precipitation/Snowfall: As for precipitation, measurable daily amounts of 0.01" have been recorded on Halloween in 21-of-129 years...only 16% of the time. Measurable Halloween snow has been even rarer, with only four instances on record (although one of these was only seven years ago in 2017). However, one snow event 33 years ago REALLY stood out above the rest: the significant winter storm of 1991! Specifically in Grand Island, 8.8" of snow piled up on the 31st alone, and a storm-total amount of 12.0" fell between Oct. 30-Nov. 1! The high temperature in Grand Island on Halloween 1991 was only 23° (the coldest on record)!
**2023 Halloween Recap (MUCH CHILLIER than the year before!) **
Staying true to what has become an "eerie" recent trend, Halloween 2023 was the 7th IN A ROW to feature a high temperature AT LEAST 19º colder/warmer than the year before (and alternating between colder/warmer each time!). More specifically, the afternoon high temperature on Halloween 2023 at Central Nebraska Regional Airport only reached 36°...a whopping 39° colder than Halloween 2022! The morning low temperature was seasonably-frigid for sure, briefly dropping to 14°...and actually tying for the 3rd-coldest Halloween low on record! On a positive note, it was at least a mostly sunny day, and following a breezy start with north-northwest winds generally sustained around 15 MPH and gusting up to around 25 MPH, the wind really died down by the late afternoon and early evening hours, making for chilly-but-tolerable trick-or-treating conditions.
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Halloween Normals/Extremes for Grand Island (1895-2023):
Grand Island NE | High Temp | Low Temp | Precip |
30-Year Climate "NORMALS" (1991-2020) | 58° | 34° | 0.04" |
10-Year AVERAGES (2014-2023) | 54.9° | 30.4° | 0.01" |
Grand Island All-Time Halloween Records (Since 1895) |
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Top 5 Warmest Highs | Top 5 Coldest Lows | Top 5 Wettest | Top 5 Snowiest |
82° (1915) | 12° (1923) | 0.79" (1991) | 8.8" (1991) |
81° (1990, 1933) | 13° (2019) | 0.60" (1920) | 0.9" (2017) |
80° (1944) | 14° (2023/1925) | 0.42" (1902) | 0.8" (1993) |
79° (1950) | 15° (1993) | 0.40" (1979) | 0.2" (1929) |
77° (2016) | 17° (1991) | 0.30" (1929) | Trace (1979, 1941) |
When is the last time _______ happened on Halloween in Grand Island? |
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Halloween Over THE LAST 30 YEARS...Since 1994 |
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The 10 Most Recent Halloweens in Grand Island (2014-2023):
Date | High Temp | Low Temp | Precip | Snow | Weather Basics |
10/31/2014 | 44° | 22° | 0.00" | 0.0" | partly cloudy, light wind |
10/31/2015 | 68° | 41° | 0.00" | 0.0" | sunny afternoon, breezy NW wind |
10/31/2016 | 77° | 47° | 0.00" | 0.0" | 5th-warmest Halloween on record! |
10/31/2017 | 31° | 19° | 0.08" | 0.9" | cold, daytime snow! |
10/31/2018 | 61° | 33° | 0.00" | 0.0" | partly cloudy, light wind |
10/31/2019 | 42° | 13° | 0.00" | 0.0" | 2nd-coldest Halloween low temp! |
10/31/2020 | 69° | 42° | 0.00" | 0.0" | warm, breezy NW wind |
10/31/2021 | 46° | 39° | 0.00" | 0.0" | chilly and cloudy, but dry |
10/31/2022 | 75° | 34° | 0.00" | 0.0" | warm+sunny, SSW wind mainly 5-15 MPH |
10/31/2023 | 36° | 14° | 0.00" | 0.00" | mostly sunny, but chilly...7th-straight year with high temp at least 19º different than year before! |
10-Yr Averages | 54.9° | 30.4° | 0.01" | 0.1" |
For more local climate information, check out the following website:
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