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How is it possible that we can get snow in the Salt Lake Valley in July as I have seen in the past?
-Mat C.
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You can have snow any time of year, it's just a matter of having the moisture in place and cold enough temperatures. The trick is, you can have cold air high above your head (say at 8,000 or 10,000 feet) and the precipitation can start as snow in the cloud. Typically, it will melt on the way down in the summertime and we get rain. But if the air at the surface just isn't that warm (say around 39 F) that snow can make it to your nose. It might not stick to the ground long since summer ground temperatures are way above freezing but you could see snow in the summer time air.
The latest measureable snowfall (.1 inches or more) was on both May 19th of 1960 and 1977. That's in the city of Salt Lake. If you were hanging out at the top of Alta or on Kings Peak in the Uintas, those higher elevations could totally have summertime snow.
Tall thunderstorms that reach 10,000 feet or higher (really big ones can go up to 50,000 feet!) have snow in the top of them. If you are inside of one (clearly, not recommended) then you can see snow in the summer. The air above our heads gets really cold as you go up and away from the surface of the earth.
Answered by KSL Meteorologist Dina Freedman.
