Minnesota State Fair Has Seen Few Severe Storms In More Than 100 Years

ST. PAUL (WJON News) -- The Minnesota State Fair will start on Thursday, and the annual event will have thousands wondering what the weather will be like when they go. Historically, the Great Minnesota Get Together has only had a couple of severe weather events in its 100-plus years.

What were the most extreme weather dates in state fair history?

Assistant State Climatologist Pete Boulay says there was a steamy double-header storm in 2024, but the most memorable storm came decades earlier in 1977:

"A really heavy rain event hit the fairgrounds, and the international airport saw seven inches of rain from that event, and it fell right during the grandstand show. It was canceled, and everybody had great difficulty trying to leave the fair, and the water was up to the hood ornaments of the cars, think of 1970s cars, under bridges."

He says the fair has had a number of years with extreme heat over the years, with the warmest being a little over a decade ago:

"I remember this one well; it was 2013. It was the third warmest on record and had six days of ninety-degree temperatures, so that gets pretty hot if it's ninety degrees at the fair."

Boulay says the coldest fair was in 1898, when it was still held over six days in September and had an average temperature of 64 degrees. The Minnesota State Fair starts on Thursday and runs through Labor Day.