How Does This Winter’s Severity In Minnesota Compare To Other Years?

We've seen snow, we've seen subzero cold, but the winter of 2025-2026 in Minnesota hasn't really felt too brutal, has it?

Everyone's sense of how brutal (or nice) a winter is depends on your level of tolerance...and maybe a little on your memory, too. Thankfully, there is some data to provide a clear and unfiltered measurement of how severe or subdued the winter has been.

Thanks to the Midwestern Regional Climate Center and its "Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index" (or AWSSI for short), we have a data-driven look at how severe (or not) the winter has been in Minnesota.

That severity index combines various factors like precipitation amounts and temperature into a composite score that measures how "severe" the winter has been on a 5-tier scale. The Accumulated index (AWSSI) looks at the overall score throughout the winter.

The severity scale is as follows:

• Extreme: Most severe
• Severe: Second-most severe
• Average: Average severity
• Moderate: Below average severity
• Mild: Least severe

Looking around the state, there's a bit of a recurring theme for this winter, but it does vary somewhat from place to place.

How severe has Minnesota's Winter Of 2025-2026 been?

The AWSSI report for this winter so far paints a picture that isn't very severe on the severity index scale to this point.

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Eastern and Central Minnesota have been seeing accumulated severity index scores consistent with an "average" winter. Included in this are towns like Duluth, St. Cloud, Rochester, and the Twin Cities.

While the winter of 2025-2026 has not been "severe", it is the worst of the last three winters. Last year, winter in these towns was a lower-rated "moderate" winter, and the winter of 2023-2024 was a near-record low mild winter.

In far northern Minnesota, in places like International Falls, as well as Western Minnesota towns like Canby, and Southern Minnesota towns like Winnebago, the winter of 2025-2026 has been categorized as a "moderate" winter, trending milder than the towns mentioned in the previous category.

In general, this winter is similar to last winter in terms of severity in this part of the state, though still notably more severe than the mild winter of 2023-2024.

How does Minnesota compare to surrounding states this winter?

Minnesota's average to slightly below average winter severity score to this point is sandwiched between states seeing weather on more of the extremes.

To the east, much of Wisconsin is seeing a "severe" winter, with parts of the Michigan U.P. seeing even worse "extreme" severity scores.

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Meanwhile, to Minnesota's west, most of South Dakota is seeing what is categorized as a "mild" winter, and North Dakota is largely seeing a "moderate" winter as of early February.