22 historical photos of snow on Mt. Lemmon and the Catalinas
- Updated
If you can't get up to Mount Lemmon while it's snowy, here are some historical photos, with some dating back to the 1950s.
Snow in Tucson
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Snow clogs the Catalina Highway to Mt. Lemmon at 5,400 feet elevation on Feb. 18, 1967. Rock slides up ahead kept motorists from going further.
Tucson CitizenSnow on Mt. Lemmon
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Paul Amerson, front, and Desiray Stamps ride down a slope on Mt. Lemmon on a big piece of tin that they took up with them. April 29, 1984.
Benjie Sanders / Arizona Daily StarSnow on Mt. Lemmon
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Empty lift chairs, bare patches of mountain, and very little snow on the ground indicate that it has been a bad year for skiers on Mt. Lemmon. Taken March 3, 1989.
Bruce McClelland / Arizona DailySnow on Mt. Lemmon
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Boy Scouts of Troop 7 push a car from camp at Mt. Lemon April 30, 1951.
Tucson CitizenWhite World
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Mt. Lemmon's winter snowfall normally is 100 inches and at the time of this picture, two falls had accumulated 36 inches on the level. Before the week was out another foot or so had fallen (January 1955).
Tucson CitizenCIT Mt. Lemmon Recreation5
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Large inner tubes known as "whirlybirds" make ideal toboggans for youngsters using the Snow Bowl's play area in 1960s.
TUCSON CITIZENCIT Mt. Lemmon Recreation3
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Citizen photo Feb. 7, 1955 – On skis made especially for her, three-year-old Lee Lawrence practices a snow plow stop under the expert tutelage of her father, Renn Lawrence, instructor in military science and tactics at the University of Arizona. Lee was born in Austria while her father was on duty here. But starting her in "almost as soon as she could walk." Lawrence hopes to develop Lee until she may one day become an Olympic ski champion.
TUCSON CITIZENCIT Mt. Lemmon Recreation2
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Mt. Lemmon Stage Lines Photo Nov. 9, 1966 The Mt. Lemmon Ski Lodge gets its first coat of snow this season- a five inch layer that began falling yesterday. More snow was expected there today. The Mt. Lemmon Radar Station, slightly higher, received about eight inches while Summerhaven, below the lodge, got three.
TUCSON CITIZENSnow on Mt. Lemmon
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Snow on Mount Lemmon Jan. 7, 1992.
Jim Davis / Arizona Daily StarSnow on Mt. Lemmon
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Citizen photo by Dan Tortorell Mar. 22, 1965. Somebody once described a ski run as the distance between the top of a mountain and the bottom of a hot chocolate.
TUCSON CITIZENSnow on Mt. Lemmon
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Shelly Bradshaw got a face full of snow from Rhonda Stratton, left, and a laugh from Neil Sewell, center, as the three Palo Verde High School students enjoyed the Mount Lemmon snow. Arizona Daily Star file photo taken 11/15/78 by Jack W. Sheaffer.
ARIZONA DAILY STARSnow on Mt. Lemmon
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Tracy Lopez shovels snow from the patio at the Mt. Lemmon Ski Valley restaurant. The Icicles are from the melting snow on the roof. The longest are about 2 1/2 feet long. Jan. 7, 1992.
Jim Davis / Arizona Daily StarSnow on Mt. Lemmon
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Snow on the Mount Lemmon Highway. 1981.
Arizona Daily StarSnow on Mt. Lemmon
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Nicki Goodsier, 9, dumps a handful of snow over Natoya Batson's (10) head Friday afternoon during a snowball fight at the Southern Arizona Burn Association's winter camp atop Mount Lemmon Feb. 25, 1994.
Brian Winter / Arizona Daily StaSnow on Mt. Lemmon
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Old Man Winter has laid a 14-inch white blanket over the upper levels on Mt. Lemmon. Despite the snowfall, and several rockslides, the highway has been kept open. Tucson Citizen Dec. 13, 1965.
Rex ThompsonSnow on Mt. Lemmon
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Snow and ice on Mt. Lemmon 1965. Tucson Citizen
Tucson CitizenSnow on Mt. Lemmon
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Mount Lemmon snow. Taken Dec. 14, 1961.
Snow in Tucson
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Snowfall drapes the trees along the Catalina Highway to Mt. Lemmon at about 7,500 feet on Dec. 6, 1969. Total snow accumulation was about nine inches.
Phil Rosenberg / Tucson CitizenMt. Lemmon in Glamorous Winter Attire
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A weekend of winter storm activity left a two-foot blanket of snow on Mt. Lemmon in 1965.
Tucson CitizenMt. Lemmon Inn
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A car almost completely covered with snow photographed in front of the Mt. Lemmon Inn at the Bavarian Village.
Tucson CitizenSnowy Roadway Atop Mt. Lemmon
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Old Man Winter has laid a 14-inch white blanket over the upper levels of Mt. Lemmon, ca 1950s. Despite the snowfall, and several rockslides, the highway was kept open.
Tucson CitizenWintry Look In Summerhaven
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Snow flurries yesterday in the Catalina Mountains tried to give the Summerhaven resort area atop Mt. Lemmon a preview of a white Christmas, ca 1950s.
Tucson CitizenTags
As featured on
Woman, 20, starts her own charity.
Mount Lemmon is closed to visitors Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
The road to Mount Lemmon is open with no restrictions.
More information
- NWS Tucson looking for volunteer snowfall observers on Mt. Lemmon
- Stormy weather closes road to Mount Lemmon
- Freeze watch, closing of Mount Lemmon: Everything you need to know about Tucson's weather
- More snow expected on Mt. Lemmon Thursday night
- Pima County officials: Road to Mt. Lemmon closes due to rain, snow
- Road to Mount Lemmon closed
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