By Maria Sanchez-Traynor
Camera Staff Writer

As thermometers surged toward record highs in Boulder County late this week, Sally Seward was talking about snow.

Sally, a sixth-grader at Southern Hills Middle School, was among eight people who correctly picked May 24 as the date for the season's last snowfall in the Daily Camera's 2001-02 First, Last Snow Contest. She will receive a $50 gift certificate from McGuckin Hardware following a random drawing.

The 1.1 inches of snow that fell in Boulder on May 24 and Friday's record-high temperature of 89 degrees have made for drastic weather changes over the past week.

"That's the way Boulder weather is," said Bill Callahan, a Boulder weather historian whose backyard surfboard is the official measuring spot for the contest. He said the previous record for May 31 was in 1933, when the high for the day was 88 degrees.

"April, September and May have had many instances where 90-degree temperatures have followed snow or vice versa," he said.

Callahan, however, said the late snow was pretty surprising considering the dry conditions.

"After all that heat, forest fires and water restrictions, to get that heavy snow that late in the year is remarkable," he said.

For those of you missing the snow in these high temperatures, you've probably got a while to wait, Callahan said.

"I bet the next snow won't come until the first week in October," he said.

Sally said she wasn't quite sure when the last day of snow for the season would be.

"I just remembered that it sometimes snows late in the year," she said. "I just picked the number." Sally, who has entered the contest for three years, said she didn't get a chance to enjoy her prize-winning prediction. "I just went to school," she said. "I didn't play in it at all."

June 1, 2002

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