Trick-or-treaters may want to throw on an extra layer as Tuesday will be the coldest Halloween in 11 years. High temperatures are predicted to be in the low to mid-30s, dropping into the upper 20s by the time ghosts and goblins turn in under cloudy skies, according to the forecast from the National Weather Service.
Should the forecast hold, Tuesday will be the coldest Halloween since 2006, when the mercury topped out at 36 degrees accompanied by a stiff northwest wind, according to state climatology records.
But Tuesday won't be the coldest on record. A bone-chilling 26 degrees recorded in 1873 still holds that mark. A balmy 83 degrees in 1950 remains the warmest on record.
The holiday has been trending warmer since the turn of the century with unseasonably warm weather, including a 71-degree high in 2000. The coldest Halloween this century has been 34 degrees in 2002, a mark that could fall Tuesday.
Generally, high temperatures on Halloween are in the 40s and 50s and the day has generally been dry.
Precipitation has fallen only 26 percent of the time over the past 145 years — that is 38 times — with the most memorable the 8-plus inches of snow that fell in 1991. That was part of a three-day storm that dropped 28.4 inches of snow in the Twin Cities. Snow is a rarity on Halloween, with measurable snowfall occurring only 4 percent of the time dating to 1872, or six times, climatology records show.
Rain is rare, too, with measurable rain recorded only twice in the past decade, in 2015 and 2009.
Light winds Tuesday should make it palatable to be outside, with cloudy and spookily gloomy skies.
