Remember when you were a kid, and Halloween was so cold? We’re talking full-snowsuit-under-the-costume cold. So cold that your fingers burned as you sorted and swapped sweets. Today’s trick-or-treaters have it way easier, right? Halloweens these days are downright balmy compared to the fright nights of your youth.
That may be the collective memory, but it’s actually … totally wrong. Weather data from the Wisconsin State Climatology Office shows a trend that will send chills up your spine: Halloween — at least in the Madison area — has gotten colder.
“Much to our surprise, there is a cooling trend in Halloween’s temperature,” says assistant state climatologist Bridgette Mason. “Honestly, we really don’t have much of an explanation as we expected an increase in temperature!” Mason, alongside fellow assistant state climatologist Ed Hopkins and state climatologist Steve Vavrus, analyzed weather data from 1991 to 2023 in both Madison and across the state. While the statewide data shows a cooling trend of 0.6 degrees Fahrenheit, Madison’s Halloweens have cooled by 2.7 degrees.
On Halloween in 1991 — when the most popular costume was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s the Terminator — Madison reached a daytime high of 49 degrees . But last year, when Barbies and Spider-Men and Wednesday Addamses rang your doorbells, Madison only reached a high of 36 degrees. While there hasn’t been a significant change in the daily high temperatures from 1991 to 2023, the lows, and consequently the averages, have dropped by about 3 degrees.
That said, the stats for “warmer than normal” and “colder than normal” years have kind of been all over the place. A warmer-than-normal stretch ran from 1997 to 2001, and 2019 plummeted to more than 15 degrees colder than average in Madison. With the daytime high barely scraping above freezing, it was an appropriate year for Annas and Elsas to hit the pavement. “There have been many more far-from-normal years than near-normal years,” Mason says, “but not as extreme of warmer-than-normal years as I would’ve thought given the anecdotal evidence.”
In addition to a cooling trend, what’s also puzzled the climatologists is a distinct lack of snow. According to the data, only three Halloweens in Madison have seen snow, and they’ve all been recent: 2014, 2019, and 2023. Only one of those years, 2019, saw noteworthy snowfall (four inches), while 2014 and 2023 had less than 0.2 inches fall with none sticking to the ground.
Keep these trends in mind as you plan for this year’s frightful festivities; you may want to reconsider your HOT TO GO! getup for something a little warmer … perhaps a Science Hall ghost?