Snow in the San Francisco Bay Area

mjtmjt
edited January 2010 in General Chat
This video was filmed by a student at St. Mary's College near San Francisco - where snow is rare.

Comments

  • edited December 2009
    That's a really pretty video, actually; he did a good job editing it to match the song, and I love how he ends it. I still find it a little unnerving that it snowed though. It makes me wonder what Mount Diablo must have looked like afterward!
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited December 2009
    I had absolutely no idea it could snow in San Fran... :p

    How often does that happen?
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited December 2009
    The bay area gets a tiny bit of snow maybe once a decade or so? The outlying towns with higher elevation get it a little more frequently.
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited December 2009
    About two weeks ago there was snow on the tops of the mountains visible from my neighborhood... I know, they're mountains, but it's still really rare for them to have snow on them. It was gone a day or so later.

    I remember it snowing in SF at one point when I lived in the city, maybe four or five years ago, but I didn't see it. It was near the Golden Gate bridge.
  • mjtmjt
    edited December 2009
    San Francisco gets snow just about never, but I do remember a snowfall in the 1960's which was enough to blanket the ground and some spots in the shade stayed until the next day. Our friends' dad 2 houses down worked for a newspaper, so a photo of their snowman, all of a foot tall with Twin Peaks in the background, made it into the paper, the front page as I recall. Snow was that newsworthy.

    This video was taken about 20 miles east of SF where snow is rare and obviously appreciated. Mt. Diablo is a few miles further east. It's almost 3,860 feet high and gets a real snowfall once or twice a decade.
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited December 2009
    Wow, sounds like that video captures a very special event - there's certainly a good deal of snow there.
    mjt wrote: »
    Our friends' dad 2 houses down worked for a newspaper, so a photo of their snowman, all of a foot tall with Twin Peaks in the background, made it into the paper, the front page as I recall. Snow was that newsworthy.

    Snow in London is probably rarer than you would think from the impression given by movies etc. But it always seems to be newsworthy because it messes up the city so much - transport systems often shut down and a lot of people will have the day off work. London is just not equipped to deal with snow in the same way that a lot of US cities are.
  • mjtmjt
    edited December 2009
    Lena, you were right to wonder about Mt. Diablo. It got 18 inches (!) of snow on Dec 7, the day that video was made. And their weather station is only about halfway up the mountain, so it was probably deeper at the top. That's amazing just 30 miles east of SF!

    I did think that snow was common in London; probably from movies. And it's a lot colder in the winter than SF.
  • edited January 2010
    puzzlebox wrote: »
    Wow, sounds like that video captures a very special event - there's certainly a good deal of snow there.



    Snow in London is probably rarer than you would think from the impression given by movies etc. But it always seems to be newsworthy because it messes up the city so much - transport systems often shut down and a lot of people will have the day off work. London is just not equipped to deal with snow in the same way that a lot of US cities are.

    A testament to how rarely it snows.

    Heres a snow related question for you (too which i know the answer to). If Hail is frozen rain, what is snow?
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2010
    Friar wrote: »
    Heres a snow related question for you (too which i know the answer to). If Hail is frozen rain, what is snow?

    I'm going to say that hail is rain that freezes as it falls, while snow forms in the clouds and then falls. But how do you know I didn't Google it? :p

    The other day I had to ask what caused sleet though. All these exciting different forms of precipitation!
  • edited January 2010
    What is sleet? I've read about it, but I've never seen it in real life.
  • edited January 2010
    Lena_P wrote: »
    What is sleet? I've read about it, but I've never seen it in real life.

    Sleet is like hail, but it is smaller. It really feels more like falling slush than hail stones if that helps explain it. It is more solid than snow, but not as hard as hail.
  • edited January 2010
    puzzlebox wrote: »
    I'm going to say that hail is rain that freezes as it falls, while snow forms in the clouds and then falls. But how do you know I didn't Google it? :p

    The other day I had to ask what caused sleet though. All these exciting different forms of precipitation!

    Nope, Snow is water that freezes below 0 degrees C, which happens due to the water being contaminated with dust. The water can only freeze around this dust, and then around the frozen bits, causing the snowflake to grow. It looks really odd when you see it happening. Hail happens when the Dust levels are too high for snow in the atmosphere, so the crystals grow to quickly, into balls.

    Over here, we've been promissed 20-40cm (8-16') of snow starting at 6PM, and been given an Emergency weather warning by the met office, and theres been nothing. It's now nearly 8PM. *grumble*
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2010
    That's amazing! Where I used to live in Australia, we would sometimes get hail, but never ever EVER snow. Actually, having snow here in the UK is cool, but I do miss the awesome thunderstorms you get in Oz. They are simply spectacular.

    Whereabouts in the UK are you based? The BBC has forecast snow for 3 days solid in London. :D

    Oh and did you hear about those people who got snowed into a pub on New Year's Eve, and were stuck there for 3 days? Fantastic stuff - wish I'd been there! :p
  • edited January 2010
    puzzlebox wrote: »
    That's amazing! Where I used to live in Australia, we would sometimes get hail, but never ever EVER snow. Actually, having snow here in the UK is cool, but I do miss the awesome thunderstorms you get in Oz. They are simply spectacular.

    Whereabouts in the UK are you based? The BBC has forecast snow for 3 days solid in London. :D

    Oh and did you hear about those people who got snowed into a pub on New Year's Eve, and were stuck there for 3 days? Fantastic stuff - wish I'd been there! :p

    Wiltshire. Just under the snow bit under the i in cardiff. I think. Still no snow.
  • edited January 2010
    And it snowed over in my town right next to the frickin' coast.

    Hopefully we'll be snowed in tomorrow.
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2010
    It's snowing now! It's all so pretty before thousands of people trample all over it and squish it into mush/ice. :D
    Hopefully we'll be snowed in tomorrow.

    Hope so! Fingers crossed... although I'm only a 15 minute walk from the office, so "I couldn't commute" is a tough excuse to make. :p
  • edited January 2010
    puzzlebox wrote: »
    It's snowing now! It's all so pretty before thousands of people trample all over it and squish it into mush/ice. :D



    Hope so! Fingers crossed... although I'm only a 15 minute walk from the office, so "I couldn't commute" is a tough excuse to make. :p


    It didn't start snowing here until 12.30 AM. We got 4 inches (we were promised 8->16 inches!) Still, it was enough to close school, and it is the most i've seen in my life.
  • edited January 2010
    Your school was closed for just four inches of snow? Don't you have snowplows or anything in your town?
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2010
    Lena_P wrote: »
    Your school was closed for just four inches of snow? Don't you have snowplows or anything in your town?

    .... where I come from school is closed on the THREAT of snow. If there is a 30% chance of snow, there will be a run on milk and bread in the grocery store and everyone holes up inside for the coming apocalypse.

    Mind you I come from Georgia.
  • edited January 2010
    Lena_P wrote: »
    Your school was closed for just four inches of snow? Don't you have snowplows or anything in your town?

    Prior to last year, the most snow we usually got was 5mm. We live in a small town, in a rural county, so we don't really get plows. In fact, the only time i've seen a gritter is in the depot 30 miles down the road. This makes the roads treacherous in the surrounding villages, as the thin roadsides aren't visible, meaning that people living there (about 20% of students) can't get in due to the busses not going.

    I still have to go in on tuesday (if they aren't opened by then), due to having an exam. Fun.
  • edited January 2010
    Yeah, well, where you come from [censored for extreme stereotypes] and according to "Squirm" your worms have teeth!
  • edited January 2010
    Will wrote: »
    .... where I come from school is closed on the THREAT of snow. If there is a 30% chance of snow, there will be a run on milk and bread in the grocery store and everyone holes up inside for the coming apocalypse.

    Mind you I come from Georgia.

    I think if there was any threat of snow in my hometown there'd be riots.

    Just to give all of you in colder climates a good laugh, I'm from San Diego and once or twice a year the highest mountains in the county (over 5000ft) will get a quarter to half inch of snow. When that happens, there is a run on parkas, mittens, sleds and other snow accessories and tons of families pack up the car and drive out, over an hour and all at once creating great traffic jams, to go play in the barely ground covering snow...oh, and they require chains to go up into the "heaviest" snow areas.

    I've actually never seen it snow.
    ________
    make a vaporizer
  • edited January 2010
    I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, the lowest lying (I think its below sea level) and hottest part of Los Angeles. Once, in the late eighties, it snowed and school was cancelled. I'm still trying to figure out if that was a dream or not.
  • edited January 2010
    I think that might actually be a sign of the "end times" ...
  • edited January 2010
    Where I live is horrible for snow. If there is any, it'll just pass over us and hit the other islands. Luckily it did snow a bit last week.
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