DILLON — Mother Nature dropped a surprise on Summit County with as much as 4 inches of snow in town.
After a fairly dry May, towns across the county saw the overnight June snowstorm drop between 1 inch of snow in Frisco and about 4 inches of snow in Breckenridge, Silverthorne and Dillon, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Kalina. Heeney saw 2 inches while neighboring Winter Park tallied 7 inches of snow.
While Summit County has seen a relatively warm and dry spring, snow in June in the High Country is not uncommon. The record for June snowfall recorded in Dillon is 10 inches, which fell over a 24-hour period from 7 a.m. on June 11 to 7 a.m. June 12 in 1947. Looking at daily snowfall records in Dillon, Kalina said the weather station recorded 4 inches of snow June 22 of that same year and 6 inches June 9, 1923. In more recent years, there have been lower amounts. June 13, 2010, and June 20, 2011, saw 2 inches, and June 22, 2019, saw one inch of snow.
“Up there in pretty high elevations, we get these cold upper-level troughs come across, and being so high in the mountains, you get snow,” Kalina said.
As for the rest of the week, Kalina said the weather should warm up significantly. In Dillon, the high Tuesday was forecast at 43 degrees, and Kalina said Wednesday through Friday will jump to higher temperatures. The National Weather Service forecasts the high on Wednesday to be 63 degrees while Friday shows a high temperature of 78 degrees.
“It’s definitely going to warm up, and it looks pretty dry — just a few isolated 10% chances of showers and storms by Friday afternoon,” Kalina said.
While Saturday’s high temperature remains at 76 degrees, there is a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m. Kalina said no more snow was on the horizon but that the snowstorm would be helpful in reducing fire danger.