Potential wintry whiteout turned out to be a washout
It was a chilly and mostly sunny Saturday in San Jose last
weekend, a bit cold for baseball but a consequence of scheduling
games in February.
The forecast was still calling for a chance of snow in the Bay
Area, but the skies did not look threatening enough for flakes
during our commute from Hollister northward. It was a bit
disappointing that the snowy forecast was not going to come true,
but at least we wouldn’t be missing the once-in-a-generation
event
– or so we thought.
Potential wintry whiteout turned out to be a washout
It was a chilly and mostly sunny Saturday in San Jose last weekend, a bit cold for baseball but a consequence of scheduling games in February.
The forecast was still calling for a chance of snow in the Bay Area, but the skies did not look threatening enough for flakes during our commute from Hollister northward. It was a bit disappointing that the snowy forecast was not going to come true, but at least we wouldn’t be missing the once-in-a-generation event – or so we thought.
About midway through the game at Bellarmine High School, the buzz began.
“It’s snowing in Hollister!” someone said in the stands.
“It’s true,” said another. “I just got a call.”
Baler fans began checking their cell phones and the news reached the dugout, where the freshmen started spreading the word.
I found myself surprisingly disappointed. All the build-up, the hope, the talk of a chance of snowfall in Hollister had my family ready for it.
On Friday night, we kept peeking and stepping outside to see if it was cold enough to snow. It wasn’t. It also wasn’t raining, which didn’t help. We figured it was just another meteorological mess-up; a faulty forecast.
There was no snow on Saturday morning and, although it was chilly, it appeared the chance had come and gone. Even the local morning news weather guy said the talk of snow had a snowball’s chance in Miami of panning out.
Then, during a weekend scrimmage almost an hour north of Hollister, it happened. Not in every neighborhood and not for very long, but it happened.
For people who have lived outside of California, February snowfall is hardly newsworthy. But anyone who has lived in Hollister for more than a decade knows how rare of an event it is. We get a dusting of snow every winter on Fremont Peak across the Diablo range, so the site of snow from Hollister is relatively common. Flakes falling on Hollister itself, however, is not.
By the time the game was over and we had a chance to check Facebook, people all over Hollister were reporting snowfall. It didn’t stick on the ground and there were no snowball fights or snowmen being built. Still, it happened.
My brother-in-law shot cell phone video of his daughters gleefully looking skyward, arms outstretched, as the snow fell. Other people simply posted the word SNOW! to proclaim the news.
My oldest son, who already felt like he had been dragged to the game on a day when he’d rather be catching up on sleep, wore an “I told you so” look when he heard about the snow.
“I knew I should have stayed home,” he said, which is probably exactly what he would have said even if it didn’t snow in Hollister.
Our ride home only made it worse, a white blanket still carpeted the hills east of Morgan Hill and Hwy. 101 through Gilroy was wet with what had been snow just minutes before.
We looked skyward and to the south toward home, hoping that the few remaining clouds could squeeze out just a few more flakes for us.
It didn’t happen, unfortunately, and we were all a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to experience a real slice of winter. On the bright side, we got to go to a high school baseball game on a sunny day in February, which probably isn’t possible in two-thirds of the country, so we counted our blessings.
Still, it would have been nice to have been snowed out – just once.
Adam Breen writes a blog at http://thebreenblog.blogspot.com and teaches newspaper and yearbook classes at San Benito High School. He is a reporter for The Pinnacle and former editor of The Free Lance. He can be reached at
ab****@pi**********.com
.
