Minnesota’s Summer Snow Mystery Gets A Closer Look

UNDATED (WJON News) -- Knee high before the 4th of July is often common for corn, but what about snow? The State Climatology Office says one of the strangest calls they receive is people asking about or claiming to have seen snowfall on the Fourth of July.

Assistant State Climatologist Pete Boulay says they have looked everywhere for evidence of a summer snowfall:

"And we always investigate every single one of them. Usually, it's up north somewhere, like in Ely or somewhere like that, I think, as far south as Brainerd once, and we look through newspaper archives, weather observations, and can't find any evidence of it."

He says one of the tales of a July snowfall they have heard indeed came from Ely:

"One of the classic ones is we got a report in July 4th, 1977, they claimed it snowed in July 4th there. Well, we went to the Ely Echo, found a newspaper article of the kiddie parade on the fourth, and they're all wearing short sleeves, so had it snowed, you'd think they'd be dressed just a little warmer for the weather."

Boulay says the stories are almost always from about 50 years ago, or the people used to be from a town and are visiting it for a parade when it snowed.

Hail can look like snow once it starts to melt.

He says part of the problem is how the National Climate Data Center classifies hail:

"Officially in the records, hail counts as a trace of snow, so you have to be very careful when you look at historical records, is it looks like it could have snowed in the summer, but it turns out it's always hail because officially in the weather log, they treat hail as a trace of snow."

Boulay says there have been hail events in Minnesota where snow plows had to be called out to remove it.

Mizpah received 1.5" of snow in June of 1935.

The latest snowfall for the state occurred in Mizpah on June 4th of 1935. The earliest recorded snowfall in the state took place at the Duluth Airport on August 31st, 1949.