The forecast for Halloween on Thursday isn’t set in stone, but officials say snow is likely.

Here’s the Thursday, Oct. 31, forecast for Kane County, IL, as of Monday night (Oct. 28 2019):

• Thursday: Rain and snow likely before 9am, then rain likely between 9am and 5pm, then rain and snow likely after 5pm. Cloudy, with a high near 39. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
• Thursday night: Rain and snow likely, becoming all snow after 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 23. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Snow is relatively rare on Halloween in Kane County. It has happened six times since they’ve been keeping weather records. And we’ve only had one season where there was measurable snow on Halloween.

That said, the normal first snow of the season usually happens around this time of year. It’s Oct. 30 at O’Hare, on average, and Nov. 2 at Rockford Airport.

What’s the Usual Weather on Oct. 31?

So what is the “usual” weather for Halloween in Kane County?

According to the National Weather Service Chicago, temperatures most often (during recorded history) gets up into the 50s and lows fall to the 40s. It’s dry more often than it rains, and if there is precipitation, it’s more likely to be rain, although snow isn’t out of the question.

The following statistics comprises 146 years of data. Data collection began at the University of Chicago, then at Midway, and presently is at O’Hare, which is now the official station for Chicago.

To see the daily climate data for Chicago for Halloween from 1872 to the present, click here.

Frequency Distribution of High Temps

This data set shows that the most frequent range of high temperatures on Halloween is in between 50 and 59 degrees.

The normal high for Halloween is 56 degrees, which falls in the range of the most frequent highs.

The record high is 84 degrees set in 1950. This was the only time in Chicago’s history that the high temperature on Halloween was in the 80s.

The coldest high temperature on Halloween is 31 degrees which occurred in 1873.

Frequency Distribution of Low Temps

This dataset shows that the most frequent range of low temperatures on Halloween is in between 40 and 49 degrees.

The normal low for Halloween is 39 degrees, which falls in the range of the second most frequent lows.

The record low is 23, which occurred in 1873. The highest low temperature for Halloween was 65 degrees in 1974.

Frequency Distribution of Precip

This data set shows that the most frequent amount of precipitation recorded on Halloween is 0.00 inches, which accounts for 51% of the days in the data set.

The next most frequent range is the 0.02 inches to 0.25 inches, closely followed by a trace of precipitation.

The record amount of rainfall on Halloween occurred in 1994 when 2.26 inches of rain fell. There have been three instances dating back to 1872 where an inch or more of rain fell on Halloween.

There have been six instances in Chicago’s history where snow has fallen on Halloween, with the only date of measurable snow being on Halloween in 2014.

Last year, no snow was recorded on Halloween. (Yay!)

ADDITIONAL HALLOWEEN CLIMATE DATA

( * MEANS LAST OCCURRENCE)

MAX TEMP WARMEST	MIN TEMP WARMEST	PCPN WETTEST	SNOW
84 1950	65 1974	2.26 1994	0.1 2014
79 1944	61 1900	1.27 1941	T 1993 *
78 1935 *	59 1933	1.04 2013
77 1974 *	58 1950 *	0.77 2015
76 1915 *	56 1909	0.75 1912
MAX TEMP COLDEST	MIN TEMP COLDEST	PCPN DRIEST
31 1873	23 1873	0.00 2017 *
32 1917	24 1917	T 2009 *
37 1878	25 1993	0.01 2003 *
39 1930 *	26 1996 *	0.02 1991 *
40 2017 *	27 1913	0.03 2014 *