The Halloween Blizzard of 1991 was an early-season storm that moved north from the Gulf of Mexico to the upper Great Lakes. Unseasonably cold air allowed the rich moisture-laden airmass to deposit a long band of snow from the Panhandle of Texas northeastward to western Lake Superior. Many early-season snow total records were broken, and single-storm records fell at Minneapolis (28.4″) and Duluth (36.9″) Typically storms from the Gulf of Mexico do not move due north; however, eastward motion of this system was blocked by a large nor’easter off the coast of New England (the so-called “Perfect Storm”).
In the visible loop above, notice the rapid melting of snow deposited by the system in west-central Texas, despite record cold (30 and 31 October 1991 are the only October days in Amarillo history that stayed below 30 all day) Snowcover in South Dakota (The Missouri River stands out) also speaks to the chill in the airmass on the cold side of the storm.
(Coming soon: Infrared and Water Vapor imagery of this storm)
