CINCINNATI — Are you dreaming of a white… Halloween? Well, nearly 30 years ago, The Great Pumpkin met Frosty the Snowman here in the Tri-State.
A whopping 6.2 inches of snow fell during Halloween weekend in 1993 as a powerful winter storm moved across the Midwest and Ohio River Valley. This was the first “White Halloween” on record in Cincinnati as the morning snow depth was 4”.
A majority of the snowfall actually occurred on Saturday, October 30, when Mother Nature dumped 5.9 inches. The other 0.3 inches fell after midnight on Halloween. These both still stand as daily snowfall records for those dates. In fact, there have only been seven total measurable snowfalls in the month of October, with these being two of them.
Since it fell on a weekend, and most people off from work and school, it turned into a day of fun. When kids and adults weren't making pumpkin-headed snowmen, they were sledding and throwing snowballs akin to January or February.
The snow impacted some outdoor sporting events, including the University of Cincinnati’s homecoming game, the Covington Catholic-Scott football game and kids' soccer games around the Tri-State as well.
At the UC-Memphis State game, an overzealous groundskeeper thought he would help UC kick a last-minute, game-winning field goal by using a snow shovel to clear a spot to place the ball. That got UC a 5-yard penalty. In the NCAA Football Rules Book, Article 9a. states “No material or device shall be used to improve or degrade the playing surface or other conditions and give one player or team an advantage”.
So the kicker, Tom Dallen, stepped back 5 yards, wiped off some snow with his shoe, and made the 22 yard field goal to beat Memphis State, 23-20 in front of 14,598 people.
The weather setup was very unusual for this time of year, with a strong polar jet stream digging far south into the Southern Plains states. This polar air combined with a low-pressure system coming out of the Gulf of Mexico to provide plenty of moisture for snow.
This set up a very fine line of who saw snow and who saw rain. Just to our southeast, Lexington only saw a trace of snow with 0.50” of rainfall.
When trick-or-treat time came Sunday evening, temperatures were at or below freezing, and many kids (or their parents) decided to stay home. But not Kathy Piller of Delhi.
“I’ll stay out as long as the kids want to stay out,” Piller told The Enquirer as she walked door-to-door with 6-year-old Kelly and 4-year-old Jack. “They both have two jackets under their costumes.”
To this day, the 5.9 inches of snow on October 30 still ranks as the 35th most snow ever recorded in a single day. In fact, we have only seen that amount (or more) 11 times since then. It was a Halloween to remember and certainly one of a kind!
