Yep, a drought of 35 years was ended late Friday night when snow began to fall in San Francisco and continued into Saturday morning - its first snowfall since 1976, an event so rare it even made the New York Times:
Snow Falls on San Francisco After a 35-Year Wait
February 26, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO —
Predictions had called for the possibility of the first significant snowfall in San Francisco since February 1976, when all of an inch fell, according to the National Weather Service. And just before midnight, several high-lying city neighborhoods, including Twin Peaks, at some 900 feet, reported light snowfall.
The scattering of flakes capped a weeklong flurry of activity among civic leaders and commuters — as well as dreams of flying down some of the city’s famous inclines.
A local blogger even posted a pretend Ski Map of the hilly Bernal Heights neighborhood, complete with Beginner, Intermediate and Expert trails:
Of course this isn’t the first time San Francisco has experienced snow:
Getting into the spirit of things, the San Francisco Chronicle went through their treasure trove of archived photos and dug up some old pictures of snowfalls from winters past:
1882
Twenty-four years before the 1906 Earthquake that devastated the city, it snowed as documented in these pictures believed to be taken of Market Street. The dark lines in the first one show where the picture was to be cropped.
1887
Shotwell Street between 22nd and 24th
Intersection of Oak and Pierce Streets with Buena Vista Park in the distance
Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park
Unidentified Location
1932
Clement Muni Streetcar
1951
Snow at Laguna Honda hospital (The Chronicle waxes poetic in their caption: "The snow made a fairy castle of the Laguna Honda home, etching trees and shrubs with sugar frosting white.")
1962
This dude thought to run home, grab his skis and fly down the hill behind UC Medical Center.
Sledding in the Sunset District. (The note on the back of this picture said the 1962 snow was two inches deep in some places.)
Aerial photo over San Francisco Airport
The caption on the snowball fight in front of the car taken in Visitation Valley suggests that the 1962 snow went on for three days
1976
Snowball fight Lawton and 14th Avenue in the Sunset District
Snow covered roofs at Twin Peaks and Graystone
While it didn’t snow in the city proper in 1975, it did in the metro area on March 13th – providing this dramatic picture from the San Francisco Chronicle of the skyline with the Bay Bridge and the East Bay Hills covered in snow in the distance.
And below, of the Golden Gate Bridge with the snow covered hills the Headlands in Marin County.