Rico was there for the last one

Jesse McKinley in The New York Times and John Boudreau in the San Jose Mercury News have articles about a mysterious white powder falling from the sky in, of all places, the San Francisco Bay Area:

As a Pacific storm coincided with a blast of cold Canadian air over their fair city, residents here saw snow late Friday, a long-absent visitor for a city accustomed to fog, sweater-weather, and other nearly bone-chilling accoutrements.
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. 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.
“I can’t wait. It’ll be crazy,” said Marisa Belaski-Farias, 23, a graphic design student from Hawaii who has never seen snow in person. “I have a cardboard box at home. Hopefully there will be enough snow to sled.”
All Friday, it looked like that outing might have to wait. The storm brought soaking rain and howling gales in the early hours, but in classic San Francisco fashion— weather here can vary hour to hour and block to block— the morning rain gave way to clear skies and, in some quarters, profound disappointment.
“It’s a beautiful sunny day in San Francisco,” one Twitter user, LNSmithee, wrote in midafternoon. “Under normal circumstances, that would be great. But earlier this wk, we were promised snow.” (An unhappy emoticon was attached.)
But, just before midnight, those snow showers fell, inteterrupting local televsison broadcasts for up-to-the-minute reports. Meteorologists were reporting the city might, just might, get a dusting on Saturday as well, as a Canadian cold front lingered over the city and spotty showers moved in from the ocean. But, according to Chris Stumpf, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Monterey, California:“It’s going to be a little bit harder to get it to sea level.”
The very possibility that San Francisco could see snowfall led to all manner of mock dismay by online wiseacres, including Isitsnowinginsfyet.com, a website that offered a blunt assessment of the outcome at that time: “No.” Just before midnight, that assessment was updated: “Yes!”
There were more serious responses. Mayor Edwin M. Lee warned of unseasonable cold and asked city homeless shelters to increase capacity and outreach to the indigent. Crews planned to monitor roads for flooding, while the Department of Public Works planned to offer free sandbags.
Snow is more common outside the city, with small amounts accumulating at scenic mountain peaks. It is rare in San Francisco because moisture hitting Northern California is generally warmed by the Pacific before making landfall. In this case, however, the rain was being met by a cold blast coming in from the north.
Still, for some, the hype turned their feelings to mush even before the storm came and went without leaving any snow. “I’m already over the snow in San Francisco,” wrote Michael Owens, a Twitter user. “And it hasn’t even happened yet.”

Light snow flurries swirled across the Bay Area early Saturday morning, but dissipated before most people slipped out of their warm beds.
The dusting was reported in San Jose and other Santa Clara Valley cities, such as Cupertino, Los Gatos and Gilroy. But, for many valley residents, who hadn't seen snow accumulation on the valley floor since February 1976, the dusting was a disappointment. Still, cold-weather records were broken as a blast of arctic air bore down on Northern California. According to the National Weather Service, low temperatures wrapped the region overnight, with San Jose hitting 33 degrees, which it had not done on this date since 1897. Downtown San Francisco registered 37 degrees, which hadn't happened since 1952, while San Francisco International Airport reported 36 degrees for the first time since 1971.
The thin layer of snow fell between midnight and 2 a.m. "We did get some flurries overnight all over" the Bay Area, weather service meteorologist Chris Stumpf said. "We had reports of a light dusting near Monterey Bay. We actually had a guy in San Jose say he first thought it was frost but he went outside and saw that it was a light dusting of snow." Snow can occur with temperatures as warm as 38 degrees, Stumpf said.
In San Francisco, Friday's sunny skies turned snowy in hilly neighborhoods such as Twin Peaks after dark. Trained spotters for the National Weather Service reported snowflakes sticking o wooden fences and beams, but there were no reports of snow sticking to the ground in the hills, much less at sea level in the city.
The weather service, which saw a very light dusting Friday outside its officers in Monterey, does not expect any more snowy experiences near sea level this weekend, though there will be showers along the coast today and more cold temperatures Sunday morning. Temperatures are expected to rise Monday, and rain could return Tuesday and Wednesday; in other words, a more familiar Bay Area winter weather pattern.
In Southern California, hail fell Saturday morning in South Pasadena and snow fell along the Grapevine, but Interstate 5 remained open, officials said. The snow level dropped to 1,500 feet in parts of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, and the weather service said the level in Los Angeles County foothills could drop as low as 1,000 feet sometime today, depending on conditions.
Snowflakes could fall on the Santa Monica Mountains, in the Antelope and the Santa Clarita valleys, and in the higher elevations on the northern edge of the San Fernando Valley, said Curt Kaplan, a weather service meteorologist in Oxnard.
The arctic storm also brought snow to the San Joaquin Valley city of Arvin, at an elevation of 400 feet, and in the hills above the Central California coastal city of San Luis Obispo, Kaplan said.
As to whether the storm would be cold enough for snowflakes to dust the ground near the Hollywood sign, chances were looking slim. Kaplan said the weather service has updated its forecast to say snowfall in the Los Angeles area would be as low as 1,500 feet, higher than a previous forecast of 1,000 feet.
The Hollywood sign on Mt. Lee is at an elevation of about 1,600 feet. "I don't think it'll be down to the Hollywood sign," Kaplan said. "But, who knows?"