Mother's Day snowstorm: Is it weird to get snow this late?
A blizzard that was moving into the northern Midwest on Saturday night was slated to drop as much as two feet of snow on the Dakotas. Is it unusual to get snow this late in the spring?
A blizzard that was moving into the northern Midwest on Saturday night was slated to drop as much as two feet of snow on the Dakotas. Is it unusual to get snow this late in the spring?
For most of the United States, spring has arrived. But there remain some parts where winter has yet to give up its grasp.
On Saturday night, snow blanketed Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota, canceling a game at Coors Field聽and聽caused a 70-car accident near Cheyenne, Wyo.
鈥淚t鈥檚 never too late to snow here," 聽Terry Aron, of the Flying J truck stop along Interstate 90 in South Dakota told the聽Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald.聽"I鈥檓 used to it.鈥�
Rick Krolak, a meteorology technician at the Bismarck office of the National Weather Service told the Herald that the unusually late storm is due to a 鈥淐olorado low," a聽low-pressure pattern that develops near Colorado on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains.
鈥淲e usually get more of these in April,鈥� Mr. Krolak told聽the Herald. 鈥淏ut I guess in North Dakota we really aren鈥檛 safe until June.
So how common are post-winter snow storms and where are they most likely to occur?聽
According to WeatherUnderground.com, the state that receives the most unseasonable snow聽is Wyoming, with much of the state having had measurable snowfall after June 1 over the years. Of the lower 48 states, Wyoming on average receives the latest snowfall as it is fairly common to get snow after April 22. In some parts of the state, it can snow past May 5.聽
Alaska consistently gets late snow as well, with much of the state getting measurable snowfall after April 22, and more than half the state has had measurable snow after May 5 in select years.聽
The latest snow on record may have occurred on聽June 11, 1842 聽when a storm dropped roughly a foot of snow on parts of New York and Vermont, the Washington Post reported. Snowflakes were observed from Boston and as far west as Cleveland, according to Weather Underground.