Full moon partially obscured by clouds in central Nebraska, (Brain Neben, Courtesy)
GRAND ISLAND — Not surprisingly, weather conditions on Oct. 31 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 degrees, and lows have ranged from 13 to 54 degrees. This story features a wealth of Halloween weather and climate information focused specifically on Grand Island, where October weather records date back 130 years to 1895.
Temperatures: According to the entire period of record, the warmest Halloween featured 82 degrees in 1915, while the coldest low was 12 degrees in 1923. Only 27-of-130 Halloweens on record, 21 percent, have featured high temperatures of 70 degrees or higher, most recently 75 in 2022. On the cold end of the thermometer, only 25-of-130 on record, 19 percent, have seen low temperatures of 25 degrees-or-colder, most recently 14 degrees in 2023.
In recent years, a somewhat unusual and somewhat “spooky” trend has developed: Halloween 2024 was the eighth in a row to feature a high temperature at least 19 degrees colder/warmer than the year before and alternating between colder or warmer each time.
Precipitation/Snowfall: As for precipitation, measurable daily amounts of 0.01 inches have been recorded on Halloween in 21-of-130 years, only 16 percent of the time. Measurable Halloween snow has been even rarer, with only four instances on record, although one of these was only eight years ago in 2017.
However, one snow event 34 years ago really stood out above the rest: the significant winter storm of 1991. Specifically in Grand Island, 8.8 inches of snow piled up on Oct. 31 alone, and a total storm amount of 12.0 inches fell between Oct. 30-Nov. 1. The high temperature in Grand Island on Halloween 1991 was only 23 degrees, the coldest on record.
2024 Halloween Weather Recap: Staying true to what has become an increasingly “eerie” recent trend, Halloween 2024 was the eighth in a row to feature a high temperature at least 19 degrees colder or warmer than the year before. More specifically, the afternoon high temperature on Halloween 2024 at Central Nebraska Regional Airport reached a very seasonable 57, or 21 degrees warmer than Halloween 2023.
The morning low temperature of 35 degrees was also right on pace with long-term averages. Adding to the “not too bad” feel of the day, skies were overall mostly sunny and winds were seasonably-light at mainly 10-15 mph during the daytime and evening.
Technically, the first few hours of the calendar day started out cloudy and moderately-windy behind a departing weather system, gusts 25-35 mph out of the northwest, but these winds eased noticeably before daybreak.
