October may sound too early for snow, but history shows it may be more common than you think.

Alaska-based meteorologist and climatologist () has compiled a series of maps showing where October snowfall can be considered typical and also where past October heavy snow events have occurred.

In his maps, Brettschneider considered only those reporting stations with at least 10 years of weather data.

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As you'd expect, October snow is par for the course in the Rockies, northern Plains, northern Great Lakes, and high country of northern New England and Upstate New York. Here are a few average October monthly snowfall totals:

Marquette, Michigan: 6.4 inchesGreat Falls, Montana: 4.4 inchesDenver, Colorado: 4.4 inchesDuluth, Minnesota: 2.1 inchesFlagstaff, Arizona:2 inchesRapid City, South Dakota: 1.9 inchesCaribou, Maine: 1.6 inchesSalt Lake City, Utah: 1.3 inches

Average October snowfall, based on 1981-2010 data from NOAA/NCEI.

(Map: Brian Brettschneider)

There are other locations where October snow has happened, but it's much more unusual.

Brettschneider then plotted locations that have picked up at least a foot of snow on at least one October day in their history. Here are some interesting highlights:

The Mount LeConte Lodge in Tennessee's Smoky Mountains at an elevation of 6,593 feet, picked up a from from Oct. 29-31, 2012.Windsor Locks, Connecticut, picked up 12.3 inches two days before Halloween 2011 in the destructive "Snowtober" storm.Buffalo was clobbered by a destructive mid-October 2006 lake-effect snowstorm, dumping over 22.6 inches of snow.South Bend, Indiana, was buried with 14 inches of snow on Oct. 28-29, 1910.Lincoln, Nebraska, was buried by 13.2 inches of snow on Oct. 26, 1997, not only an October daily record, but their second snowiest calendar day of any month, trailing only a 19-inch snowfall on Feb. 11, 1965.Los Alamos, New Mexico, picked up just over a foot of snow – 12.5 inches – on Oct. 21, 1996.

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Average October snowfall (contours) and locations that have reported at least 12 inches of snow in at least one October day on record (purple dots).

(Map: Brian Brettschneider)

Amazingly, there are locations that have picked up 2 feet or more of snow in at least one October day.

Lead, South Dakota, the unofficial snow champion of the Black Hills, has had five separate October days with at least 24 inches of snow in records dating to 1909. dumped 42 inches of snow in one day, there, on Oct. 4, 2013.Red Lodge, Montana, picked up a whopping 43 inches of snow from Oct. 25-26, 1996.Las Animas, Colorado, in the state's eastern plains was buried by 31.5 inches of snow in a High Plains blizzard on Oct. 24-25, 1997.

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Average October snowfall (contours) and locations that have reported at least 24 inches of snow in at least one October day on record (dots).

(Map: Brian Brettschneider)

Interestingly enough, there are a few places in the U.S. where October is king for snowfall.

"October is the snowiest month in a handful of Alaska stations and nowhere else," said Brettschneider in an email. "This is because the air is so cold during the winter months (in those Alaska locations) that it cannot hold very much moisture."

Barrow, soon to be renamed its traditional Iñupiaq name, Utqiagvik, is the most familiar Alaska location that counts October as its snowiest month most years, averaging 8.8 inches of snow in October. This is over three times as much snow as it picks up in an average January (2.8 inches).

(MAPS:)

Locations where October is the snowiest month of the year, on average. All are in Alaska.

(Map: Dr. Brian Brettschneider; Data: NOAA/NCEI)

is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been an incurable weather geek since a tornado narrowly missed his childhood home in Wisconsin at age 7.

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