Will snow mess up our early December flights?

Howdy! We%26#39;re looking at a vacation this December (12/6) with flights that connect through MSP going to and through Detroit coming home.

We%26#39;ve never visited or connected through this area, and I was wondering when the ';snow season'; really starts around there? Here in Jersey, sure it gets cold and maybe might snow, but really it%26#39;s not an issue until closer to January/February.

Any words from the locals? Do your blizzards start at Thanksgiving, or is it basically like NJ?

Thanks!

Will snow mess up our early December flights?

Hi-

1) Yes it might snow.

2) It doesn%26#39;t tend to dump the way it does along the coasts or by a great lake.

3) The airport is set up for it

Natives disagree, but I don%26#39;t think it snows all that much. If it snows more than a foot that would be very unusual.

The average annual snowfall in 55 inches and our snow season can very easily go form november through april. You can see that there is just not much room in 55 inches to drop a few feet and then still have any snow for the rest of the 6 months.

Will snow mess up our early December flights?

snows have been light for the past few years

some x-mas%26#39;s have have very light dustings

It is very unpredictable. One of the worst snow storms we have ever had in northern Minnesota was on Halloween night. Odds are that your flights will be fine though.

Thanks for the responses, that makes me a lot more comfortable booking a December trip. (We%26#39;d be coming through MSP towards the end of the evening, so if we missed our connection due to weather, it%26#39;d pose a problem.)

I hope NWA is good, never flown them before. . .

Hi,

I%26#39;m laughing because I knoew osmeone was going to mention the Halloween storm.

Since I moved here 13 winters ago it is th eone example of a true dump of snow that people bring up.

It is very hard for mInnesotans to accept, but we really do not have much snow.

Can you image somebody in Buffalo needing to go back that far (how far - my neighbors sin was an infant and is now a senior in HS), to find a big snow.

I will say it again - it does not dump here at all. If it does I will take pictures.

What the Hallowwen storm does represent is how it can turn to winter here quickly.

This is record of the largest snowstorms in the

Twin Cities.

This is from ww.climate.umn.edu.

I don;t know how far back the data goes, but it is at least since 1894 (listed as having on eof the lowest snowfall months

* 1. OCT 31-NOV 3 1991 28.4 *

* 2. NOV 29-DEC 1 1985 21.1 * *

* 3. JAN 22-23 1982 .. 20.0

* 4. JAN 20-21 1982 .. 17.4 * *

* 5. NOV 11-12 1940 .. 16.8 * *

* 6. MAR 3-4 1985 .. 16.7

According to NOAA

The maximum observed X daysnowfall event in Hennepin county (1948 -2006) was:

1day 13.7 inches

2day 14.7 inches

3day 14.9 inches

Now for Atlantic City (for non-easterners this is about the same latitude as the Masn Dixon line - so hardly what you would call the bitter north)

1day 16 inches

2day 20 inches

3day 21.5 inches.

Now in fairness I also picked a different spot in MN since our weather can be quite different acros the state:

Red Lake:

1day 14 inches

2day 18 inches

3day 22 inches

From the following site---- http://home.att.net/~minn_climo/mspsnowm.gif -----

December is the third snowiest month at an average of 8.6 inches per month, since 1884.

I have had flights cancelled out of MSP when there isn%26#39;t a blizzard on more than 1 occassion at Thanksgiving time...just a winter storm with ice. I personally didn%26#39;t think it was that bad and took a one way car rental to Fargo and made it home one time. The weather is unpredictable everywhere and there are no guarantees. Still I have had more flights cancelled going through O%26#39;Hare than MSP and I fly Northwest more than United. Air travel is getting so unreliable nowadays that you just need to be ready in case something happens and deal with it. Golly....between myself and friends in town, I can count 5 times we have had flights cancelled out of North Dakota this summer for weather...even when its beautiful outside here. Be on fairly full flights and try to get your flights as early as possible in the day is all you can do.

The nice thing about flying through Minneapolis, is that NW has a lot of flights between Detroit and Minneapolis (each is a hub), so even if your flight had probelms it would be comparatively easy to get a new flight