October 2025 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Late Month Chill Can't Undo Early October Heat

Saint Cloud October 2025 Weather Summary  

The trend of heat, especially early in the month, continued in St. Cloud during October 2025. A hot period during the first 4 days of October produced across-the-board records on October 4th. Not only did that date set a record warm high, low, and average temperature for the date, but the 91-degree high was the latest 90-degree high ever recorded in St. Cloud, breaking the record from two years ago. Every temperature set on October 4 either tied or broke the all-time record for the warmest high (91, tie), warmest low (67, tie), and warmest average temperature (79) for the entire month of October (see table below).

Cooler weather did move in during October 5, so that the warmest high temperature over the last 25 days was 72 degrees. In fact, much drier air moved in, producing St. Cloud's first hard freeze of the season on October 8. Some of the cooler air was cloudy, so there were 4 highs failing to reach 50 degrees. Still, the overall October average temperature ended up being 51.6 degrees (high 62.0 degrees, low 41.3 degrees), 5.9 degrees above average. That was the 13th warmest October in St. Cloud records. Combined with September, the St. Cloud Sept-Oct average temperature was 58.1 degrees, 5.0 degrees warmer than average. That tied for the 6th warmest September-October combination in St. Cloud records (see table below).

For the growing season (April through October), 2025 had an average temperature of 61.2 degrees, tied for the 7th warmest April-October (see above). Note that April-Oct 2024 ranked third and April-Oct 2023 ranked 6th. For the year thus far, St. Cloud's average temperature of 48.9 degrees is 2.7 degrees warmer than average, just 0.3 degree off the top 10.

Overall, October 2025 continued the streak seen since May 2023: 29 of the past 30 months have had warmer than average temperatures (see table below). The average temperature over the two and a half year period is 50.9 degrees, 4.7 degrees above average. The partly overlapping period of May 2022 through October 2024 is second warmest. Both are much warmer than the 3rd place period of May 2015 through October 2014

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources noted that the early October heat was the tail end of very warm temperatures that began in late September. St. Cloud had a record warm high of 88 degrees on September 29. However, the heat was the most prolonged in western Minnesota. Between September 25 and October 5, Milan, in western Minnesota near Lac qui Parle, had 11 straight days with a high of at least 85 degrees. That was three weeks later than any similar 85-degree streak in Milan's weather records. This warming trend has also been seen in several recent Septembers, and the warming trend has been seen since the 1970's. St. Cloud has now had 15 straight Septembers with an above average temperature (and that 59.5 degree average in the 1991-2020 period is two full degrees warmer than the 1961-1990 average of 57.5 degrees.

Among high and low temperature thresholds, October 2025 added the following

• High temperature thresholds
  • 1 high of at least 90 degrees (8th of the season, still below the 11.4 day average)
  • 4 highs of at least 80 degrees (first 4 days of the season; tied for 5th most in October)
    • 73 days for the season, tied for 28th most
  • 7 highs of at least 70 degrees (average is 5 October days)
    • 135 highs of at least 70 degrees during season (average is 135 days)
• Low temperature thresholds
  • 3 October lows of at least 60 degrees (2nd most in October behind 1900, 4 days)
    • 64 days for the season, tying the 1900 record
  • 1 October low of at least 65 degrees (only had occurred on three previous days; once in 1900, once in 1968, once in 2023)
    • 24 days for the season, tied for 10th most
  • 7 October lows of at least 50 degrees, tied for 9th most
    • 123 days for the season, tied for 6th most

The cooler and drier air that pushed in after the early October heat ended producing the first frost on October 7 (about a week late). The first hard freeze (first low of 28 degrees or colder, widely regarded as the end of the growing season) happened the next morning with a low of 25 degrees. This left 156 days without a frost and 171 days without a freeze. However, the dip to 27 degrees on October 8 was short-lived, so that the ragweed may not have been widely killed off until the low to middle 20's lows on October 23 and 24.

October 2025 Worsened Recent Trend of Dry Late Portions of Growing Season

St. Cloud and much of Minnesota had a very wet late spring through mid-summer in 2025. The St. Cloud Sky Central Airport had picked up 16.24 inches of rain during May through July, nearly five and a quarter inches above average. From August on, the water spigot has been shut down. In October, St. Cloud picked up only 1.23 inch of rain, less than half of the 2.61 inch average. For the three-month August through October period, St. Cloud has received only 4.68 inches of rain, 4.94 inches below average, and the 10th driest Aug-Oct period in St. Cloud records (see table below). October was really dry in most of Minnesota, except the northwestern part of the state, especially near Lake of the Woods and the Northwest Angle.Over the past 90 days (set date to November 1, period to 90 days, and departure from average on the NWS Water Prediction Service map), most of Minnesota, except the northwest, west central, and southeast have well below average rainfall (yellow). The area between the Red Lakes, Lake Itasca, and the St. Croix River to the North Shore have the least rain (red areas indicating 4-6 inches below average). That's why moderate drought levels have developed from near Bemidji to Lake Superior and the Wisconsin border (compare US Drought Monitor of October 28 with July 29). Overall, St. Cloud is close to average on growing season rain (23.36 inches) and 2025 precipitation (26.44 inches), but we will need major rainfall after the ground thaws next spring to catch up on moisture.

Only a Few October Flakes (But Early Season Snow is Not a Good Indicator of What the Winter Will Bring)

Unlike last year, St. Cloud only saw a few snow flakes in the air on October 21. Temperatures were warm enough to allow the flakes to melt on contact with the ground. Over St. Cloud's entire history about 1 in 3 Octobers produce measurable snow, even though 6 of the previous 9 Octobers have produced measurable snowfall. In 2020, an October 20 snowstorm, as well as a November 10 snowstorm produced more than one third of the entire seasonal snowfall (15.8 inches in Oct-Nov; 45.2 inches in all of 2020-2021). Early snow is not a good predictor of a long snow seasow. We had 2.5 inches in October 2024 and October 2023, but had well below average snow seasons.

The long-range forecasts are out and are leaning towards a colder than average and snowier than average winter. I usually keep out of this game, because I don't believe in the accuracy of such forecasts. I did mention an analog method I tried a couple of weeks back. My question was whether having back-to-back seasons with 35 or less inches of snow made it more likely to have much more snow this season. I found 17 times that St. Cloud had back-to-back snow seasons of less than 35 inches. In those 17 instances, 7 had the following snow season with a third straight 35 or less snow season. So, 42 percent of the time, a third low snow season followed two others. Statistics can be especially misleading when the numbers of small. Statistical theory only produces a lot of confidence for 1000 cases or more. But, the previous years show us that a snowier season is no guarantee and that snowier season could be only near average rather than well above. There's no way I'm forecasting a repeat of the record snow season of 2022-2023!

    October 2025 Statistics

Last Update: 2 November 2025