DArcyS wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 7:48 pm
If there's a strong monsoon flow, I would "guess" the odds for snow go down, since snow in the summer probably requires a strong cold front from the north.
Not really. A cold front is required for the bigger summer snowstorms, but monsoon moisture brings plenty of dustings. It's often cold enough to snow on the 14ers during monsoon periods. Pikes Peak, for example has an average high of only 48 in July and an average low of 34. Longs Peak (for example) is estimated to be at least 2 degrees colder, making the average high and low 46 and 32. It doesn't have to be much cooler than average to snow (and it can snow with temperatures anywhere in the 30's or even higher).
Anyway, for anyone interested, here is the biggest July snow total I can find for anywhere in Colorado:
- snowfall.PNG (89.87 KiB) Viewed 1622 times
Supposedly 28.0 inches of snow fell in the Leadville area in July 1901. Unfortunately there weren't many weather stations in the high mountain valleys during that time period so it's hard to collaborate with other stations. If that snowfall really did happen, it must have snowed quite a bit on the high peaks since the weather station is only at 9870 feet elevation. 28 inches does seem a bit suspicious, but that's what's in the weather records.
The 1800's and early 1900's did have quite a few freak snowfall events though.
In July 1902 it snowed even in some of the desert regions of Utah and Nevada. Eureka Nevada isn't quite in the desert, but is only at 6400 feet elevation. 5 inches of snow fell there during the July snowstorm. Tropic Utah, near Escalante and named for its mild weather recorded 17 degrees. Loa Utah recorded 19 degrees.
In July 1861, a group of soldiers were caught at Soldier Summit Utah (elevation 7450) feet and several were killed in the blizzard. That's how the location got its name.
On July 17 1972 snow was reported in Denver:
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/07/17/ ... r-in-july/
I'm old, slow and fat. Unfortunately, those are my good qualities.