The day it snowed on College Heights
Snow sometimes dusts the Bay Area’s highest peaks, such as 4,000-foot Mount Diablo. On the morning of Feb. 5, 1976, the College of San Mateo community woke to much more snow, much closer to home.
An icy air pocket over the eastern Sierra had veered west toward the coast, dropping up to five inches of powder over much of the Bay Area in a freak pre-dawn snowfall. The CSM campus received enough of the white stuff for students to build a huge snowball and have snowball fights on campus lawns.
There have been 11 recorded instances of sea-level snow in the Bay Area, according to former National Weather Service meteorologist Jan Null. Locally, storms in 1887, 1932 and 1951 dropped enough to send children into transports of snowball-throwing joy. A snowfall on Jan. 21, 1962 covered Coyote Point in powder and led the California Highway Patrol to close Skyline Boulevard.
More snow photos from the CSM Historical Photo Archive
https://smccd.edu/photoarchives/exhibit2/e20255b.htm
https://smccd.edu/photoarchives/exhibit2/e20095b.htm
https://smccd.edu/photoarchives/exhibit2/e20096b.htm
https://smccd.edu/photoarchives/exhibit2/e20100b.htm
See how the 1962 snowfall blanketed Coyote Point and SFO
https://thesixfifty.com/a-white-christmas-in-the-bay-area-fc2e5f8e3a02
