Every October somebody asks: has it ever actually snowed here on the 31st?
Most years the answer is no. But the record books — and a lot of folks who were kids in the early ’90s — say otherwise. Halloween 1993 delivered real, measurable snow across a big slice of West Virginia, and for the lowlands it remains the snowiest Halloween on record.
Measurable snow means at least a tenth of an inch at the official climate sites. And Halloween day means October 31 — not “around Halloween.” Late-October storms that missed the 31st get their own section below, clearly labeled.
Halloween 1993: the day the costumes got wet
If you were trick-or-treating in southern or central West Virginia that Sunday, you remember it. An early-season cold shot turned rain to snow while the buckets were still half full.
Here are the official climate-site totals for October 31, 1993 — the six towns on our graphic:
Beckley: 6.5 inches — the most snowfall on Halloween on record in the National Weather Service Charleston Halloween climate sheet, matching the daily airport record.
Bluefield: 3.2 inches — Mercer County Airport daily climate data (NOAA GHCN-Daily and RCC-ACIS). Bluefield is in the Blacksburg NWS office area, so it isn’t on Charleston’s Halloween sheet; the 3.2″ is the airport daily observation for that date.
Elkins: 3.1 inches — the modern airport period-of-record maximum for Halloween day. (An older NWS Halloween sheet figure of 4.6″ in 1917 is a different, earlier record series — we are not mixing those.)
Charleston: 1.5 inches — Yeager Airport; dual-verified against the NWS Halloween sheet.
Huntington: 1.5 inches — Tri-State Airport; same sheet, same day.
Morgantown: 1.2 inches — Municipal Airport daily climate data. Morgantown isn’t on the Charleston Halloween sheet (Pittsburgh NWS area), but the airport logged 1.2″ on Halloween 1993.
The southern mountains and plateau took the brunt. The Kanawha and Ohio valleys got a wet, memorable coating. Even Morgantown picked up more than an inch on the calendar day itself.
It wasn’t just snow — it was cold
The NWS Charleston Halloween climate sheet also flags how raw that day felt. Beckley’s coldest Halloween high on record is 32°F in 1993. Charleston’s is 36°F in 1993. Parkersburg’s is 37°F in 1993. At Bluefield, the airport high that Halloween was 31°F — matching the coldest Oct. 31 high in the NWS Blacksburg Bluefield extremes list.
It wasn’t a pretty dusting under a blue sky. It was a cold, early-winter Halloween — snow on the grass, soggy costumes, the works.
How often does Halloween actually snow?
Not often — especially in the valleys.
At Charleston’s Yeager Airport and Huntington’s Tri-State Airport, the daily climate records show Halloween 1993 as the only measurable Oct. 31 snow in the modern airport series we checked. Beckley’s airport has two: the big 6.5″ in 1993, and a leftover 0.3″ on Oct. 31, 2012 after Sandy. Elkins sees Halloween flakes a little more often in the mountains — including light measurable amounts of 0.4″ on Oct. 31, 1930 and again on Oct. 31, 2023 — but nothing in the airport record matches 1993’s 3.1″ for a true Halloween-day dump.
A white Halloween in Charleston or Huntington is rare enough that 1993 still owns the conversation. A multi-inch Halloween across half the state? That’s the unicorn — and 1993 is it.
Near-Halloween — not Halloween day
West Virginia has had other late-October snows that feel like Halloween season even when they miss the 31st. These are not Halloween-day totals — labeling matters.
Superstorm Sandy — Oct. 29–30, 2012 (not Oct. 31)
This was the monster near-Halloween storm. Most of the snow fell on the 29th and 30th. The NWS Charleston storm summary and daily climate records agree:
Beckley: 9.7″ on Oct. 29 and 12.9″ on Oct. 30 (only a few tenths left on the 31st). The Oct. 29–Nov. 1 storm total ranks among Beckley’s top snowstorms at 23.0″.
Charleston: 9.4″ on Oct. 30 alone — the Kanawha Valley’s big day was the 30th, not Halloween.
Elkins picked up about 7″ on the 29th and 10″ on the 30th in the airport record.
Halloween morning 2012 looked snowy in a lot of photos because of what was already on the ground. The NWS Halloween sheet’s greatest snow depths that day — Beckley 15″, Elkins 11″, Charleston 3″ — are largely Sandy leftovers, not a fresh Halloween dump.
Oct. 29–30, 1973 (not Oct. 31)
Beckley (Raleigh County Airport): 2.2″ on Oct. 29 and 1.0″ on Oct. 30 — those daily amounts add up to the 3.2″ that appears as Beckley’s No. 6 snowiest October on the NWS Charleston top-ten list.
Elkins: 2.4″ on Oct. 30, with October 1973 totaling 2.5″ on the NWS Elkins October list.
Halloween day itself that year was quiet at those airports.
Oct. 28, 1957 (not Oct. 31)
Three days before Halloween, both Elkins and the long-term Beckley VA Hospital climate site logged 2.0 inches on Oct. 28 (GHCN-Daily / RCC-ACIS). That fits Beckley’s NWS October monthly list, which includes 2.0″ in 1957 among the snowiest Octobers.
Oct. 25–26, 1962 (near-Halloween window)
Elkins: 1.6″ on the 25th and 1.1″ on the 26th — matching the NWS Elkins October monthly total of 2.7″ for 1962.
Beckley VA Hospital: 2.0″ on Oct. 26, lining up with the NWS Beckley October list entry of 2.0″ for 1962.
Oct. 29, 2011 (not Oct. 31)
A quieter near-miss a year before Sandy: Beckley 1.2″ and Elkins 1.1″ on Oct. 29 in the airport daily records (GHCN-Daily / RCC-ACIS). Not a headline storm — but another reminder that late October can turn wintry without waiting for November.
Where this fits with the earliest-snow story
Earlier this week we looked at West Virginia’s earliest measurable snows — rare October dates that beat even Halloween to the punch. Different question, different story. Today’s is narrower: has Halloween itself turned white, and what else has snowed in that late-October window?
Where were you on Halloween 1993?
Thirty-three years later, I still hear about that one in the comments. So I’ll ask it straight.
Where were you on Halloween 1993? Beckley with half a foot on the hills? Charleston or Huntington on a slippery sidewalk? Bluefield, Elkins, Morgantown? Drop the town — and the costume, if you remember it — in the comments.
Sources: NWS Charleston Historical Halloween Weather sheet (Beckley/Charleston/Huntington Halloween snowfall & coldest Halloween highs); NWS Charleston October climate top-ten pages (Beckley, Elkins monthly snowfall); NWS Charleston historic snowstorms page (Sandy Oct. 29–Nov. 1, 2012); NWS Blacksburg Bluefield climate extremes (coldest Oct. 31 high); NOAA NCEI GHCN-Daily and RCC-ACIS daily data for Bluefield Mercer Co. Airport (3.2″ on Oct. 31, 1993), Elkins Airport (3.1″/1993 Halloween; also 1957/1962/1973/2011/2023 dates cited), Beckley Raleigh Co. Airport, Beckley VA Hospital, Charleston Yeager, Huntington Tri-State, and Morgantown Municipal Airport. Bluefield and Morgantown Halloween totals are airport daily observations (not on the RLX Halloween sheet). Elkins graphic uses the airport POR Halloween maximum (3.1″/1993), not the separate 4.6″/1917 sheet entry.