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.
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
