Giant parking lot snow piles - What's the longest you've seen one last?

[Landshark]

Due to my lousy memory for dates I am not recalling precisely what year this was, though it was in relatively recent past. Maybe it was 2004?

My extended family was having a reunion in Oregon during early July of that year, and the activities included a day trip to see Crater Lake. During the approach to Crater Lake we began seeing spots of snow; a family member who lives in Oregon mentioned the state had gotten huge amounts of snow the previous winter.

We approached the lake from the north and when we got our first full view of it saw considerable amounts of snow around most of the shore and also on top of the hills making up the crater.

We drove around to the visitors center, which is on the south side of the crater. When we got there we were amazed by the ginormous piles of snow on each side of the parking lot - they must have been at least 7 feet tall at many points. Remember, this was in July.

While walking around and enjoying the views I came across the remains of a tree which I could only guess had been hit by lightning at some point in the past. I took a photo of it that also gives an idea of the amounts of snow that were present all around the lake. That photo is here. (I’m also Landshark on that site.)

[butler1850]

@Annie-Xmas

Parking lot, hell! In our infamous winter of 1994-1996 we had a storm in January that dumped 26" of snow on top of the 26" we had already gotton. M

Dang, that’s a long winter! But only 52 inches over 2 “normal winter seasons”… NJ folks are wimps.

[mlerose]

I’ve definitely seen them well into May here in Denver, though usually only when we have a colder-than-usual winter.

[whiterabbit]

I had one by my house last year that lasted into May. I’m in the mountains in Idaho so while it shouldn’t be a surprise, I’m still new enough to winter (my second one here) that it seemed decidedly weird.

Two feet of snow on top of two feet of snow? I can see that happening. We got two feet of snow overnight this last Christmas. And we’ve got a couple of feet, or more in the shady spots, on the ground. (It’s not been a great snow year. We need more. ) I dug out and went to work that day, too.