Tag: snow

So the weathermen finally got one right, as the storm moved down from the mountains Thursday morning and brought us snow in the valley when the sun came up. It was only a couple of inches, but that's really all we expect here in the rain shadow. And it did give us a White Christmas. Today a high pressure area is moving in to clear things up, and with the exception of possibly another quick storm over the weekend we're looking at sunny skies for the rest of the year.

Supposedly over the next 24 hours we're going to be hit with more snowstorms, just in time for Christmas. As I write this the flakes are starting to fall in Carson City, so there's a chance that this storm won't just be confined to the mountains this time.

We've been dancing with flakes for a few weeks, and even woken up once or twice to a slight dusting on the ground. But last night we got our first real snowfall of the season down in the valleys. Granted, it's a very typical snowfall for our area, just about one inch on the ground. And already the clouds are clearing away, setting the stage for the sun to burst out and melt most of it.

But it's still a significant time, especially when winter seems to be coming later every year and getting shorter each time. With Lake Tahoe's level down, we need to have all the snow we can get to build up our water for next summer. I don't know if this late start is any future indicator, but it doesn't give confidence about the winter to come.

They promised us a "big storm" was coming into the area this weekend, but we're still waiting for it. Yesterday we had flurries on and off, and a layer of flakes on the ground that you could politely call a "dusting", but no real snow yet. Is it too much to ask, to have one real snowstorm before New Year's?

I know I should be going through all my vacation pictures (4,000 pictures in 10 days. w00t!), but instead I've been going through pictures from 13 years ago. These photos from May of 1995 show the V&T Railroad in Virginia City running in the snow. Yes, it was one of those freak May snowstorms, and as you can see by the photos, it had almost all melted by late morning. But the pictures are still cool.

You know you want to see all 38 pictures at Flickr.

It's by no means the latest in the season that we've ever gotten snow. I can remember flurries in June from time to time. But it's still rare enough that it's freaky when in happens. Especially when it was just 95 degrees on Sunday!!

Talk about a cold snap.

Mother Nature's in a funny mood. Here's the little joke she pulled on us tonight, the night before we're scheduled to drive over the Sierra:

A nice meaty March snowstorm. Only about a quarter inch out there, but still. A quarter inch here means five or six at Donner Summit. The lucky thing about March snowstorms is that they melt faster than they fall, so we should be fine tomorrow. Still.

We had a couple of dry weeks there, but the snow is back again. We woke up to it yesterday, watched it all melt, then this afternoon it started falling again.

It's supposed to hit two to six inches inches before it dries up tomorrow, which seems to be a pretty standard number for us lately. It's nice to be getting so much moisture, because before we know it it's going to be summer, and we'll be stuck in the middle of a five-month dry spell and heat wave again. Just like every year.

So get out there tonight and enjoy the snow while you can.

I found the story of the "City of San Francisco" train, which in 1952 got stranded in snow just west of Donner Summit with over 200 passengers onboard. It could have been the Donner Party Part 2. The train ran into a snowdrift on January 13th and came to a dead stop. The engineer was able to call for help, but by the time the big rotary snowplows had made their way up to the buried train, the wheels and brake lines had frozen. The train was going nowhere. So now it was a matter of clearing the tracks to bring in a rescue train, but in the middle of a fierce blizzard that proved nearly impossible to do. One of the first snowplows on the scene broke down right next to the trapped train. A couple others got stuck in snowdrifts themselves. Men with shovels tried to dig out all the stuck trains, but even after hours of shoveling in the blizzard they found the wheels were frozen and wouldn't budge. Nature was overwhelming every effort of man to get the passengers out of there.

It wasn't until the third day, January 16th, that any rescue was in sight. By then the engines had run out of water, which was needed to generate steam heat for the cabins, and they were pulling resources off of the other trains that were stuck in the area to keep people warm. A Coast Guard helicopter came into the area, but couldn't land. Rescue was coming from several directions, but none of it was quite able to reach the train.

When rescue finally came, it wasn't from the rails, it was from the road. The Highway Department had taken advantage of a break in the storm to plow nearby Highway 40 (now I-80) and were able to send a fleet of cars up to grab the passengers and bring them down the hill to warmth, safety, and a steak dinner. It took three more days to dig out the train itself, so frozen were the wheels to the track.

The next time you're stuck in chain controls for a hour or two on I-80, think of this story. Then go read the whole thing, from the January 1953 issue of Trains & Travel magazine.

I know that after the last few weeks this is hardly even worth mentioning anymore, but it's snowing in Carson City right now. They're saying it's going to peter out at around 2-5 inches, so we'll have to see what the morning brings.

Update, 11:45am: It did stop at around two inches. Which is all turning to slush as we speak.