First snow of the season likely on Halloween - when do we typically see our first flakes?

With Halloween tomorrow, Mother Nature is getting into the spooky spirit with snow returning to our forecast! But how does the timing of these first flakes compare to when we would usually expect to see them?

In terms of measurable snow, meaning at least 0.1" of snowfall, that usually happens for the first time in the season about 2 weeks into November. That doesn't mean we always see it around that time, the earliest measurable snow in the last 10 years happened on Halloween in 2014 and more recently in 2019.

On the other hand, sometimes our first measurable snow comes a bit later. The latest time we saw at least 0.1” of snow was in 2012 on December 10th. The last time our first snow over a trace waited until December was in 2017.

Snowflakes resulting in just trace amounts of snow on the other hand come earlier, typically right on Halloween! Just last year our first snowflakes came much earlier, on October 17, but they have come as late as November 19 in 2016.

For more information on the timing of snow chances and how much snow is expected, stick with the ABC57 Weather Team on-air, online, and on the ABC57 Weather App. You can also watch Tom's Winter Outlook tonight on ABC57 after Monday night football.