Snow In May? This Is The Last Time It Happened In Grand Rapids

Today, May 1st, I was met with a truly horrific sight: snowfall floating outside my window. Over the past couple of days, Grand Rapids has been under a frost warning that runs until May 2nd. Even in the state of Michigan, where it feels like you can get and of the four seasons on a given day, snow in May is pretty rare for Grand Rapids.

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Grand Rapids has had snow in May only 39 times since 1920, and of those, only 4 times has there been more than half an inch of snow. With this in mind, when was the last time Grand Rapids registered snowfall during the fifth month of the year?

The Last Times It Snowed In Grand Rapids

It has been a very long time since prominent snowfall has been seen in Grand Rapids this late into the year. According to the National Weather Service,  May 3rd, 1954, was the last time GR saw over an inch of snow in one day when it snowed 1.3 inches, followed by .4 and .3 inches the next two days. But if we go a few years earlier, the totals jump quite a bit.

READ MORE: Grand Rapids Snowfall Totals 2025-2026 Winter Season

The 1920s saw two instances of snowfall in May: in 1929 and 1923. On May 2nd, 1929, 3 inches of snow fell. But the all-time record for snowfall in May came on May 9th, 1923, when 5.5 inches fell in a single day.

In every instance of May snowfall, it was too warm for the snow to stick, but that doesn't take away from the fact that snow this late into the season is incredibly uncommon, especially for those measurements. Hopefully, this is the end of cold weather for this time of year, but in Michigan, you never really know.