What If It Snowed in Fresno?

Before living in Fresno, I had never before found myself in a locale where snow was all but impossible. Fresnans, please admit that it never really snows here. Oh sure, folks talk about "the great snow of 1967" when a couple inches of white stuff hit the ground. People actually tried to make snowmen out of it. Others tell me that there was a white dusting several years back. "Everything was white," they tell me.

I'm sure it looked nice. Perhaps it tickled the imagination of all, young and old. But that's a far cry from a real snowfall.

I spent more than a decade in the southeastern part of the US. It rarely snowed any significant amounts there, but an occasional snow storm did occasionally pass through. I remember below-freezing temps continuing for days as we pulled out sleds. I even built a snow fort in the yard. That was real snow.

I've spent two decades in northern places that had significant winters. Temps would sometimes hover below 32 F for weeks as we watched inches of snowfall turn a crusty gray, still glistening perhaps on the hills but clotting up the walkways and driveways. We once had a single snowfall of 20+ inches that practically shut down our community for a week.

Fresno has no such weather, neither the former nor the latter. Snow here, even if it does blow in the wind, is little more than a frozen morning fog. It's a mere distraction from the otherwise normal onset of spring.

In all honesty, the weather does carry a significant threat to our economy. Almond trees are in fragile blossom mode, and a freezing temperature could threaten this year's profitable almond crop. Each place has its own weather hazards, I suppose.

Snow isn't far from us. An hour's drive can bring one up to 6,000 feet above sea level and the major snow of the Sierra-Nevada Mountains. The ski resort of China peak is 75 miles northeast of Fresno. Although I may scoff at the forecast of snow tomorrow here in Fresno, the weather around here is still no laughing matter. But I nonetheless scoff at "snow" in the prediction for tomorrow.

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