It doesn’t happen frequently, but it’s not completely out of the ordinary to have a snow day during the summer. It’s all part of the crazy and unpredictable weather in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. If you show up with only a pair of shorts and flip flops you could find yourself having to purchase some warmer clothing.
I can remember a day in a recent summer where in the middle of July the highest daytime temperature only got up to 7.C, or 45F. It dropped by a couple more degrees that evening. Yes it was mid July, but apparently someone forgot to inform Mother Nature of that. The temperatures were chilly throughout the entire Bow Valley that day which includes Lake Louise, Banff and Canmore. The next day the high got back up to 20C. or 68F.
I happened to be at the Chateau Lake Louise hotel that day and remember thinking it was comical that they shut down the ice cream shop that faces the lakeside of the hotel. No one was going to be purchasing cold desserts on such a frigid day. Perhaps they should have stayed open and served hot chocolate instead. Snow had fallen on the trails right down to the lake level.
The place that really got walloped with snow was the town of Jasper. It’s located three hours north of Lake Louise. They got a total of 20 cm’s (just under 8 inches) of snow, and even more in the higher elevations.
Instead of the staff at the Marmot Basin ski hill working on preparations for the upcoming ski season, they spent the day snowboarding and skiing!
The photo below looks like it could be a typical early winter day. It’s the view out of our window where we happened to be living in Canmore, an hour east of Lake Louise at the other end of the Bow Valley. It wasn’t quite cold enough for the snow to stick to the ground there, but it was coming down quite steadily and it was a very chilly day. Certainly not a summer day that you would be walking around in your sandals.
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