The 10 Coldest Halloweens On Record In the U.S.
Halloween is about 3,000 years old, which makes it far older than Christmas, Easter, or almost any other holiday people can name. According to the History Channel, “The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.” The tradition survived the Roman conquest of the Celts. In the early centuries of Christianity, the Church added All Martyrs’ Day and, eventually, All Souls’ Day to its calendar. The name “Halloween” is a “direct derivation of All Saints Day,” since “All Hallows” in Old English means “the feast of the saints.”
Most of these ancient traditions have been lost in the American celebration of Halloween. The holiday keeps its roots only in its name and in the fact that it is a day of festivities. Carving large vegetables was an early form of pumpkin carving. A celebration of the dead eventually became a celebration of ghosts, which is a core part of modern trick-or-treating.
Commercial interests took over the holiday more than half a century ago. CBS News reports, “Americans are on track to spend a record $13.5 billion on Halloween this year amid rising costs associated with the national scarefest, according to the National Retail Federation.”
The holiday has also become the foundation of one of the most commercially successful movie franchises ever. The original horror film Halloween debuted on October 27, 1978, and there have since been 13 movies in the series. IMDb describes the first one this way: “Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, to kill again.” The franchise has sold $884 million in tickets.
Halloween Weather
If the NOAA Weather Prediction Center is correct, Halloween will be rainy in the center of the country. Daytime temperatures will be in the 60s across much of the northern tier of states and in the high 70s across much of the southern tier. Even in Phoenix, the hottest major city in the US, it will be only 75.
Halloween Temperatures Since 1951
We were able to find Halloween temperature data going back to 1951, the first year for which data for the day is available. Through 2025, the average temperature on Halloween for the contiguous US was 48.4°F. Temperatures are the area-averaged daily mean.
Global warming has not automatically made Halloween warmer in the 2000s. Four of the 10 coldest Halloweens occurred in 2002, 2017, 2019, and 2023.
Data is from NOAA and the National Weather Service.
Coldest Halloweens
| # | Year | Avg temp | High | Low | vs. normal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1991 | 35.4°F | 44.4°F | 26.4°F | −13.0° |
| 2 | 2019 | 36.7°F | 47.0°F | 26.4°F | −11.7° |
| 3 | 1993 | 37.4°F | 48.5°F | 26.3°F | −11.0° |
| 4 | 2002 | 37.5°F | 46.1°F | 28.8°F | −11.0° |
| 5 | 2023 | 38.9°F | 50.5°F | 27.3°F | −9.5° |
| 6 | 1972 | 41.1°F | 49.4°F | 32.7°F | −7.4° |
| 7 | 1954 | 41.1°F | 53.4°F | 28.8°F | −7.3° |
| 8 | 2017 | 44.0°F | 55.4°F | 32.5°F | −4.5° |
| 9 | 1996 | 44.0°F | 54.7°F | 33.4°F | −4.4° |
| 10 | 1955 | 45.3°F | 58.0°F | 32.5°F | −3.2° |
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