Rembembering the Snow of ‘04
The new year is upon us and so far the winter weather in Galveston has been erratic but not too bad. According to our local weather guru, we are overdue for a hard freeze. The last time the thermometer hit freezing, and just barely at 32 degrees, was during the great snowfall of Christmas Day, 2004. We had almost four inches of the white stuff and it obliged us by sticking around for three or four hours so we could enjoy it. The photograph here was taken that day and shows our resident mockingbird waiting for his/her daily dose of raisins. I could swear he/she is frowning about the weather, but it’s not clear from this distance.
That was the second snow of our 20 years here. Snow on palm trees looks a little anachronistic, but interesting. Kids (and their parents) were out in the wee morning hours, building snowmen and making snow angels before the sun would come up and start the thaw. The heaviest snowfall here, six inches, was on January 12, 1886, and it was notable enough to make the New York Times. According to the Times article, by “10 o’clock” the weather moderated enough that “thousands of clerks and others in the business part of the town turned out and enjoyed the novelty of snowballing.” I don’t doubt that the weather was a novelty, but the “thousands of clerks” does somewhat bewilder me. This was a thriving commercial and economic center in 1886, but I doubt that there were that many clerks in a town of just over 22,000. This was probably just a little NY “Yankee” hyperbole.