can it snow in the summer?

[frigidice77]

I have wondered if it can snow in the summer and has it ever happened in the U.S?

[Ntxw]

I have wondered if it can snow in the summer and has it ever happened in the U.S?

1816, after the eruption of Tambora and low solar activity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer

[frigidice77]

Once in a thousand year event I guess. Everything came together I guess that year. Very interesting article and somewhat sad.

[Ptarmigan]

If there is a massive volcanic eruption in the equatorial area like Tambora in 1816.

[wxman57]

Snow is not that uncommon in the summer (mid to late September) at some of the ski resorts at higher elevations and across Alaska.

[RL3AO]

Minneapolis has received snow in early September (still summer).

If you want to go meteorological summer (June 1 to August 31), Duluth did receive a trace of snow on August 31st, 1949.

[ravyrn]

When I lived in the mountains in southwest Colorado, there were quite a few instances in which we received 2-3 inches of snow in June and July. I was also in Yellowstone one July and got about an inch of snow there.

[bob rulz]

On a similar note, Alta, Utah has seen (measurable) snow as late as July 6 (in 1982) and as early as September 1 (in 1973).

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?ut0072 (daily summary stats, towards the bottom of the left tab)

[JBG]

On a similar note, Alta, Utah has seen (measurable) snow as late as July 6 (in 1982) and as early as September 1 (in 1973).

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?ut0072 (daily summary stats, towards the bottom of the left tab)

Didn't Denver have a major snowstorm during September 1971?

[Scott Patterson]

Snow is common in the mountains in July and August.

In July 1993 for example, fireworks displays in some of the Colorado mountain towns had to be canceled because of blizzard conditions. The same storm dropped 18 inches of snow in the Uinta Mountains in Utah and more than three feet in some places in the Tetons in Wyoming.

See below for weather statistics for various mountains in the US:

http://www.summitpost.org/interesting-w ... its/171585

During the period of time when the Pikes Peak (Colorado) weather station was operational, it snowed every month of the year in every single year except for one unusually dry and warm August. On Pikes Peak it snows an average of 7 days a year in the month of July.

In California at White Mountain 2, snow averages 1.3 inches in July and 1.0 inches in August.

The Cascade Mountains in the Pacific Northwest are even colder in summer than the Rockies or the White Mountains. On Mount Rainier for example, the average high in July is 33F and the average low is 15. In August it is 32/14. This is roughly the same average as it is in Chicago in January. Big snowstorms are common in every month of the year in the Cascades.

Here at home, it snows every month except July an August. In the mountains above town it snows year round.

This photo was taken near my house in June 2005:



Believe it or not, a July snowstorm on Mauna Kea Hawaii produced enough snow for a 4th of July ski meet:

http://www.hawaiisnowskiclub.com/Mk/index.htm

Termperatures on Mauna Kea have never risen above 61F and have dropped as low as 22F in July and 17F in August.

Of course the mountains in Alaska are very snowy in summer. Most of the high mountains get more snowfall in summer than they do in winter. The temperature on Denali (Mt. McKinley) has never reached freezing and precipitation always falls as snow there. The average high there in July is -3F.

[hooper]

I can't document this with any sort of official NWS records, but I distinctly remember it snowing at a 4th of July picnic in eastern WA about 30-ish years ago. No accumulation, but definitely spitting flaky precipitation. Elevation is about 2000 ft, so this wasn't just a mountain event.

[JBG]

I can't document this with any sort of official NWS records, but I distinctly remember it snowing at a 4th of July picnic in eastern WA about 30-ish years ago. No accumulation, but definitely spitting flaky precipitation. Elevation is about 2000 ft, so this wasn't just a mountain event.

I heard about a similar event in July 1972 in eastern Wyoming.

[Scott Patterson]

On a similar note, Alta, Utah has seen (measurable) snow as late as July 6 (in 1982) and as early as September 1 (in 1973).

Alta snowed in August 1992 as well. When you look at the monthly totals for your link it says the data was missing that year (outside the ski season it is common to have missing data at Alta). Nearby Silver Lake/Brighton has seen several measurable snows in August:

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?ut7846

The same August 1992 storm even put measurable snow in Cedar City in Southern Utah(!).

Montana was hit much harder by the same storm, even at the lower elevations. Great Falls had 8.3 inches of snow and Helena had 6.2 inches. The very next year Butte got 5.2 inches of snow in August.

Now that I think of it, anyone who has visited Yellowstone on August 25 would remember that they celebrate Christmas then. The tradition supposedly started sometime in the 1930's(?) when supposedly a huge snowstorm snowbound and trapped everyone around Old Faithful and the lodge on August 25. Or so the legend goes though it doesn't seem to be in the official weather records and may be folklore or at least exaggerated.

[pwrdog]

Mt. Mitchel North Carolina... 6600 feet or so... Has recorded snow in every month of the year..

[sandpiper]

"Summer" is really just a name we apply to a span of months that is statistically warmer than the rest of the year, whether you measure from solstice to equinox, or from Memorial Day to Labor day. It's always possible for some anomalous event to cause weather conditions to change for a few days during the warm span or even the entire span itself into conditions which favor snow. It's not going to snow when Summer feels like Summer though.

[Scott Patterson]

Here is a screenshot I took from a weather forecast in Colorado. Notice that it is from August 15: