Record cold, snow dominate October

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News
October 2020 will go in the record books for both cold and snow, even though there are still three days left in the month. Already more than a dozen cold temperature records have been broken this month.

The 7.0 inches of wet snow that fell Oct. 20 broke the month’s record snowfall by itself. That previous record snowfall came during the Halloween Blizzard of 1991, which brought 6.6 inches of snow to the Benson area.

Another one inch of dry snow fell Sunday, bringing the month’s total to 8 inches. Since daily local records started being kept in 1953, there have only been four years now with more than 4 inches of snow in October. Only 10 Octobers since 1953 have seen more than 2 inches of snow. Most Octobers see no snow at all or just a trace.

In the past week, the National Weather Service issued two Winter Storm Watches. Winter is officially 55 days away.
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