Not ignorant at all Rob you have to experiance it to know it
I have had very few Halloween's without wet snow flying, but October is a funny month you could get hit any time. As far as accumulation the last 2 decades have been all over the place one wild year we had green grass in February
other years we can get as much as 5 or 6 feet. 
Cheers
CB
Same here around the end of October but it rarely gets more than 2" - 4" deep unless there is a drift, last year I think I shoveled snow maybe 5 / 6 times then the Chinook winds come and melt a lot of it.
When we were kids living in Victoria Bc we got sleds for Christmas but had to wait 3 years to use them!
Your just too far east!