The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness
Capital Weather Gang

It’s nearly July, but this Canadian city just woke up to snow

By
June 26, 2018 at 11:45 a.m. EDT
Snow falls in Newfoundland on June 26. (Ian Adey)

The city of Gander in Newfoundland woke up to several inches of snow Tuesday, despite the calendar confirming that July was just four days away.

“I got up and I looked out to the window, and I felt like going back to bed again, really,” John Lushman said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. “The truck was there with four, five inches of snow all over, and the patio has three or four inches all over the patio, and the driveway has four or five inches, and it’s still falling here yet.”

Get the full experience.Choose your plan

Lushman told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that he has owned his cabin for 18 years and that it has never snowed this late.

A strong storm pulled subfreezing air into Canada’s easternmost province Monday night. Temperatures on the ground were just cold enough for snow to stick to the roads as well as cars and grass. Snowplows were out early Tuesday morning to clean the streets in preparation for the morning commute.

High temperatures are usually in the low 60s in June in Gander, which makes Tuesday’s forecast — 37 degrees — well below normal for this time of year. Still, snow is not unprecedented in June, according to Weather.com, which reports that Gander averages a half-inch of snow in June.

The thing that makes this storm unique is how late in the month it came. According to Rodney Barney, a meteorologist at Environment Canada, Gander reported 2 centimeters of snow at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, which was a record for accumulating snow so late in the season. The previous record was June 14, 1976. Snow depth records date back from 1955, according to Barney.

Gander also got slammed with a late-season snowstorm in May, when more than 14 inches fell. That storm stands in Gander as the second-largest in the months of May or June.

Gander is also about to be smacked with some weather whiplash over the next day. Highs on Wednesday will be in the 60s, and temperatures will be in the 70s by Thursday.

Loading...