Now that meteorological winter 2025–2026 is behind us, it’s time to reflect on how the season unfolded.
Weather forecasters often break the seasons into three-month chunks instead of using astronomical dates. Meteorological winter covers December, January, and February. Spring spans March, April, and May. Summer runs from June through August, and fall includes September, October, and November.
This winter saw a stubborn weather pattern with a northwest flow aloft, bringing much warmer-than-average conditions to the western U.S., occasionally spilling into the Plains. Meanwhile, areas east of the trough, including the Great Lakes and eastern U.S., experienced much colder-than-average temperatures.
There were definitely some ups and downs in the overall pattern during the winter, but for the most part, we were stuck in a northwest flow aloft over the Northland.
2025-2026 winter temperature anomaly
This winter in Duluth, the average temperature was 12.7 degrees, which is about 1.9 degrees colder than the typical winter average of 14.6 degrees.
This winter, Duluth experienced 37 nights below zero, an increase from 35 last winter, which is the usual seasonal average of 35.
The coldest day in Duluth this winter was January 23rd, with a temperature of -29 degrees. Last winter’s lowest was -27 degrees on January 21st.
This winter in Duluth, there were 50 days colder than average and 38 days warmer than average.
Last winter in Duluth, the average temperature was 13.5 degrees, which was 1.1 degrees below normal. This winter ended up being about 0.8 degrees colder than that.
2024-2025 winter temperature anomaly
…Snowfall Stats…
This winter’s steady northwest flow brought most of the Northland’s snow from clipper-type systems, with bursts of heavy lake-effect snow hitting the South Shore of Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin in the wake of those clippers.
Duluth saw 38.2 inches of snow this winter (DJF), which was 12.4 inches less than the normal 50.6 inches.
Last winter, Duluth got 33.7 inches of snow, and this winter we saw about 4.5 inches more than that.
Snowfall Departure for the winter of 2025-2026
One of the biggest winter storms in the Northland this season hit in mid-February, bringing blizzard conditions and dumping 1 to 2 feet or more of snow along the North Shore of Lake Superior.
…Precipitation stats…
This winter, Duluth saw 2.75 inches of precipitation, which is 0.68 inches less than the normal 3.43 inches. Last winter, the city recorded 2.91 inches.
Precipitation Departure for the winter of 2025-2026
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