Montana, Wyoming Receive Unusual Late-July Snowfall (PHOTOS)

Sean Breslin
Published: July 28,2015

Ski resorts in parts of Montana and Wyoming fired up their webcams to capture images of something they don't usually see on their slopes: snow falling in late July.
"An abnormally powerful low-pressure system is winding up near the Montana-Saskatchewan border – something more typical of the cold-weather season than mid-July," said weather.com senior meteorologist Nick Wiltgen. "As a result, it's yanking some pretty cold air southward quickly enough to bring subfreezing temperatures into the Northern Rockies at elevations above 10,000 feet or so. Throw in some moisture and boom, snow."
The system dumped several inches of wintry precipitation on the higher elevations of the Northern Rockies, but also brought much-needed rain in a parched region. For some residents, it was the first time they'd seen July snow in southern Montana.
“I’ve been [in southern Montana] for four summers, and this is the first time I’ve seen it snow in July,” Tom Conway, assistant golf pro at Big Sky Resort, told the Great Falls Tribune. “It was a pretty crazy day.”
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The ski resort at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, reported more than an inch of snow as well on Monday. The cold front plunged temperatures below 40 degrees, prompting farmers to scramble to cover their crops that were endangered by the unseasonably cold lows, WMC Action News said.
The drought has led to a disappointing crop year for some farmers in Montana and Idaho,  according to the Tribune, so while the precipitation probably won't be enough to turn it around, farmers are hoping the cold, rainy weather won't make this season any worse.
“It’s all going to depend on where you are in your harvest,” Darrin Boss, superintendent of the Havre, Montana, Northern Agriculture Research Center told the Tribune.  “If we have mature winter wheat that’s ready to be harvested, this rain could manifest a problem if it's over several days. There’s various things that could affect the quality of the wheat by having this much rain at one time this late in the season.”
MORE: Deep Snowfall Around the World