Chill Down: It's A Record

It isn’t your imagination. It’s been one cold month so far.

The National Weather Service Friday said that the first two weeks of October were the coldest on record in the Twin Cities. Ever.

The normal average high temperature for the first 15 days of this month is 63 degrees; however, we managed just an average of 47 degrees this year. That shattered the previous record of 52 degrees set all the way back in 1875. That’s right; the 19th Century…when the President of the United States was Ulysses S. Grant.

More recently, the chilliest start to the month was an average of 54 degrees back in 1979.

The Twin Cities has set a record in the snow department as well. Our three snowfalls the past week have made this the 7th snowiest October, and that’s with 15 more days to go in the month. We have a long way to go before hit the record, though. That happened on the first day of the infamous Halloween Blizzard, when we got 8.2 inches of snow on October 31st, 1991.

We’re not the only ones shivering, obviously. St. Cloud and Eau Claire, Wisconsin are sharing our honors for a record cold month so far.

This record breaking chill isn’t necessarily a sign of things to come; however. Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a winter outlook that showed a pretty good chance we’ll have a warmer than normal December through February.