There’s a long‑standing Minnesota belief that March always brings a big winter storm right in the middle of high school tournament season. Statewide, that idea still has some truth to it—but in Duluth, the numbers tell a very different story.
Since 2010, only five of the last sixteen Marches have produced above‑average snowfall, and the March average in Duluth is 12.8 inches. In other words, most recent Marches haven’t even reached what used to be considered a “typical” month of snow, let alone a tournament‑time blizzard.
March snowfall totals in Duluth, Minnesota from 2010 to 2025
- 2010: Trace
- 2011: 7.4 inches
- 2012: 11.9 inches
- 2013: 25.8 inches
- 2014: 20.9 inches
- 2015: 8.1 inches
- 2016: 17.3 inches
- 2017: 5.3 inches
- 2018: 5.1 inches
- 2019: 6.7 inches
- 2020: 10.1 inches
- 2021: 8.7 inches
- 2022: 6.9 inches
- 2023: 34.9 inches
- 2024: 19.9 inches
- 2025: 5.4 inches
One year in that stretch really jumps off the page, and that’s March 2023. Duluth piled up 34.9 inches that month—nearly triple the March average of 12.8 inches. But that spike wasn’t random; it was part of the broader, historic winter that delivered 140.1 inches of total snowfall, one of the snowiest seasons on record.
From 2017 to 2022, Duluth logged six consecutive below‑average Marches, and only one of those years even reached double‑digit snowfall:
- 2020 — 10.1 inches Every other year in that span came in under 10 inches, well below the 12.8‑inch March average.
That’s an unusually persistent dry signal for a month that historically delivered some of Duluth’s biggest late‑season storms.
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