Extraordinary Weather by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 4, 1883

Extraordinary Weather.

By Editor

The year 1882 signalized itself in California by closing with a snow-storm. For several days the weather had been unusually cold, and on the morning of the 31st, ice an eighth of an inch thick was found on water standing out-of-doors. About eleven o'clock the snow-flakes began to fall thick and fast, and by two o'clock Oakland was covered with snow to the depth of two inches.

Little children, and many of a larger growth, unmindful of the Sunday Law, found "rest and recreation" in the unusual pastime of snow-balling. To the children of California birth the storm was a novelty, few of them having ever seen snow before. To those who hailed from the East, the sight of green leaves and grass, geraniums, fuchsias, and calla lilies in a background of snow, made the storm still more of a novelty. That veracious individual, "the oldest inhabitant," was for once nonplussed. Twice before has snow fallen in San Francisco, 1856 and 1868, but not to compare with this occasion.

Toward evening the weather moderated, and rain began to fall; and to-day, Jan. 1, everything is as fresh as after an April shower. Only the snow on the distant hill-tops remains to remind us that we have had a touch of "Eastern weather."