March has definitely gone in like a lamb and out like a saltmarsh harvest mouse here in Rockford, Illinois.

We were warned about the possibility of snow but it seemed that even the meteorologists were a little surprised by how much we got and how hard it was coming down.

Snow on March 31st in Rockford isn't wildly out of place. It seems like we get one late snow storm every spring. Usually after the mercury has already hit 70 one time in March, to make it feel even more shocking.

But when is the latest snowfall in Rockford history and what are some of the other extreme winter weather records we've had in town.

Fortunately there is a thing called the internet and it answered most of my questions. Here are some of the records I've found.

Latest Snowfall In Rockford

The genesis of my quest turned out to be the hardest to track down. I couldn't find any official website to give me an answer but a post from Candice King on MyStateline.com gave me some answers. And honestly, if you can't trust Candice for weather information, you can't trust anyone.

It was just 3 years ago in 2019 when a "late season winter storm blanketed much of northern Illinois with several inches of snow" on April 29th. That just missed out on being the latest accumulating snow on record in Rockford. That would have occurred on April 30th, 1994.

The latest Rockford has ever had a trace of snow was on May 16th, 2014.

A March 31st snowstorm is shocking but we have another month before we start setting records.

Earliest Snowfall In Rockford

There might be a handful of people that remember Rockford's earliest snowfall AND can read this article but you're probably not one of them.

It happened almost 100 years ago when the area saw a trace of snow on September 25th, 1928. 

Snowiest Winter In Rockford History

Many longtime Midwesterners will probably get this one right. The winter of 78-79 saw a whopping 74.5 inches of snow.

That's first by a pretty wide margin. The second highest total was in 07-08 when Rockford saw 72.9 inches, After that, the only year to see more than 60 inches of snow was the winter of 42-43 when 61 inches fell on Rockford.

Snowiest Day In Rockford History

The winter of 79 might have been the snowiest season we've ever seen but you have to go back almost 100 years to find Rockford's snowiest day.

March 31st, 1926, 96 years ago today, Rockford saw 13.5 inches of snow fall on the day before April. A far cry from the 1.5 inches we experienced today.

Coldest Day In Rockford History

This one happened just a few years ago and it must have been so miserable I blocked it out of my brain.

Do you remember January 31, 2019? If you do, you might remember that the temperature dropped to -31 on that day.

Coldest Wind Chill In Rockford History

If you were headed to a Super Bowl party in 1985, you might remember it being a little bit windy that night.

January 20, 1985, on the same day the 49ers defeated the Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX, the wind chill in Rockford was measured at -72.

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