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Most Extreme Halloween Weather
October 30, 2025 at 08:46 AM EDT
By WeatherBug Meteorologist, Alyssa Robinette
Halloween is a time for ghosts and goblins, witches and warlocks and vampires and monsters. However, sometimes the scariest part of the holiday can come from the weather. Here is some of the most extreme weather that has occurred on Halloween.
Ghastly Warm Weather
Unseasonably warm weather was found across the central U.S. for Halloween in 1950. Several cities reported record high temperatures, including 87 degrees in St. Louis, 84 degrees in Chicago, 83 degrees in Minneapolis, 82 degrees in Indianapolis, 80 degrees in Milwaukee, Wis., and 79 degrees in Detroit.
Frightfully Stormy Weather
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was soaked with 13.81 inches of rain on October 30-31, 1965. This brought their rainfall total for the month of October to an all-time record of 42.43 inches.
Halloween in 1987 was also a soggy one across the southwestern U.S. Heavy rain in southern California resulted in numerous mudslides. Weather-related auto accidents created three deaths and 25 injuries. Mount Wilson, Calif., received 3.14 inches of rain in 24 hours. Yakima, Wash., also reported measurable rainfall for the first time since July 18th. This 103-day dry spell was their longest of record.
Trick or Treat Temperatures
Depending on where you lived, you could have gotten tricks or treats for temperatures on the Halloween of 1989. Nine cities in the Southwest reported record high temperatures for the date, with Phoenix having a reading of 96 degrees. Meanwhile, 22 cities in the northeastern U.S. observed record low temperatures for the date. A low of 19 degrees in Cleveland was a record for October, and morning lows of 21 degrees at Allentown, Pa., and Bridgeport, Conn., tied October records.
The Halloween Storm
The Halloween Storm is also known as “The Perfect Storm” or “The No-Name Storm,” which happened late October of 1991. The storm was a nor’easter that absorbed Hurricane Grace and then ultimately evolved back into a small, unnamed hurricane late in its life cycle. The storm initially developed off the coast of Atlantic Canada on October 28, which was forced southward towards the Mid-Atlantic over the next few days. It lashed the East Coast with high waves and coastal flooding.
Damage from the storm totaled over $200 million (1991 USD) and the death total was 13. It caused waves over 30 feet high and left more than 38,000 people without power. Most of the damage occurred in Massachusetts and New Jersey.
This storm caused the sinking of a sword fishing boat, Andrea Gail. The storm and the boat’s sinking became the centerpiece for the non-fiction book The Perfect Storm (1997) and the major Hollywood film adaption in 2000 starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Diane Lane.
White Halloween
The 2011 Halloween nor’easter is sometimes referred to as “Snowtober,” “Shocktober, and “Oktoberblast,” and broke snowfall records in at least 20 cities for total accumulations.
The low pressure formed on October 29 along a cold front to the southeast of the Carolinas, which then moved up the East Coast. The nor’easter did plenty of damage before it moved out to sea on November 1. Most of this was because most trees in the Northeast still had most of their leaves. When the snow fell and sat on the leaves, it weighed them down and caused branches to break, entire trees to topple over and power lines to fall.
This caused widespread power outages, with estimates around 3.2 million U.S. residences and businesses in 12 states experiencing power outages. In Connecticut, outages lasted as long as 11 days. This storm caused anywhere from $1 to 3 billion in damage. Thirty-nine people died because of the storm.
Source: WeatherForYou.com, Earth Networks, NWS, Wikipedia
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Image by Benjamin Balazs from Pixabay
Ghastly Warm Weather
Unseasonably warm weather was found across the central U.S. for Halloween in 1950. Several cities reported record high temperatures, including 87 degrees in St. Louis, 84 degrees in Chicago, 83 degrees in Minneapolis, 82 degrees in Indianapolis, 80 degrees in Milwaukee, Wis., and 79 degrees in Detroit.
Frightfully Stormy Weather
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was soaked with 13.81 inches of rain on October 30-31, 1965. This brought their rainfall total for the month of October to an all-time record of 42.43 inches.
Halloween in 1987 was also a soggy one across the southwestern U.S. Heavy rain in southern California resulted in numerous mudslides. Weather-related auto accidents created three deaths and 25 injuries. Mount Wilson, Calif., received 3.14 inches of rain in 24 hours. Yakima, Wash., also reported measurable rainfall for the first time since July 18th. This 103-day dry spell was their longest of record.
Trick or Treat Temperatures
Depending on where you lived, you could have gotten tricks or treats for temperatures on the Halloween of 1989. Nine cities in the Southwest reported record high temperatures for the date, with Phoenix having a reading of 96 degrees. Meanwhile, 22 cities in the northeastern U.S. observed record low temperatures for the date. A low of 19 degrees in Cleveland was a record for October, and morning lows of 21 degrees at Allentown, Pa., and Bridgeport, Conn., tied October records.
The Halloween Storm
The Halloween Storm is also known as “The Perfect Storm” or “The No-Name Storm,” which happened late October of 1991. The storm was a nor’easter that absorbed Hurricane Grace and then ultimately evolved back into a small, unnamed hurricane late in its life cycle. The storm initially developed off the coast of Atlantic Canada on October 28, which was forced southward towards the Mid-Atlantic over the next few days. It lashed the East Coast with high waves and coastal flooding.
Damage from the storm totaled over $200 million (1991 USD) and the death total was 13. It caused waves over 30 feet high and left more than 38,000 people without power. Most of the damage occurred in Massachusetts and New Jersey.
This storm caused the sinking of a sword fishing boat, Andrea Gail. The storm and the boat’s sinking became the centerpiece for the non-fiction book The Perfect Storm (1997) and the major Hollywood film adaption in 2000 starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Diane Lane.
White Halloween
The 2011 Halloween nor’easter is sometimes referred to as “Snowtober,” “Shocktober, and “Oktoberblast,” and broke snowfall records in at least 20 cities for total accumulations.
The low pressure formed on October 29 along a cold front to the southeast of the Carolinas, which then moved up the East Coast. The nor’easter did plenty of damage before it moved out to sea on November 1. Most of this was because most trees in the Northeast still had most of their leaves. When the snow fell and sat on the leaves, it weighed them down and caused branches to break, entire trees to topple over and power lines to fall.
This caused widespread power outages, with estimates around 3.2 million U.S. residences and businesses in 12 states experiencing power outages. In Connecticut, outages lasted as long as 11 days. This storm caused anywhere from $1 to 3 billion in damage. Thirty-nine people died because of the storm.
Source: WeatherForYou.com, Earth Networks, NWS, Wikipedia
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Image by Benjamin Balazs from Pixabay