MPR’s Cathy Wurzer talks with Brian Watson, a Twin Cities meteorologist as he reflects on the deadly 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard. Watson compares Halloween Blizzard of 1991 as another highly memorable weather event.

“The Armistice Day Blizzard” is the defining blizzard of the 20th century in Minnesota and remains the storm against which all other blizzards in this state are compared to. It is infamous for how quickly the temperature dropped, followed by white out conditions and massive amounts of snow. The deaths and havoc from storm were due in part from a lack of accurate forecasting. The forecast structure changed afterward, with a greater emphasis on local forecasting, rather than a regional system.

Lore has claimed it as “The Halloween Blizzard,” and Minnesotan memories and tales have only increased with the passage of time. Snow started falling on the morning of October 31, 1991. By midnight, the storm had dumped 8.2 inches of snow at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, breaking the record for the most snow on that date. By the time it was all done three days later, the storm had dumped more than 2 feet of snow in the Twin Cities and 3 feet in Duluth. The North Shore city’s 36.9-inch snowfall set a record at the time as the largest single snowstorm total for Minnesota.