(KMSP) - It's official! The Twin Cities has recorded its first trace of snow for the 2014-2015 season. It was only a trace but enough to create a blizzard of activity on social media. It’s funny, that in a place that will see more than its fair share of snow, the first sighting of the white stuff, no matter how small, still creates a frenzy.
Most of the time our first snow is nothing more than a few wet flakes left over after the passage of a fall cold front. We in the weather business call that a trace! You actually need 1/10 of an inch for the flakes to go down in the record books as measurable. Above is a list of the first TRACE of snow that fell in the metro the past five years.
A peek into the all-time record books shows that the first trace of snow in the Twin Cities occurred on SEPTEMBER 15, 1916. If we expand our criteria to statewide, the earliest trace of snow occurred in Duluth back on AUGUST 31, 1949.
It might be a scary sight for some but the first flakes of snow do not mean an end to mild days. In fact the latest 80° temperature in the metro was on Halloween back in 1950. Also, there will be a little more of a buffer zone between the first flakes and the first inch. Above is a list of the first inch or more of snow at MSP International since the year 2000.
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