This article originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle
At midnight, I got off work at Park Station and drove home to my apartment in Diamond Heights on Red Rock Way. The place had a 12-foot bay window which opened onto a sweeping panorama of half of San Francisco and six Bay Area counties. Inside I lit my fireplace, poured a Jack Daniels and collapsed in front of the window to unwind looking out at the city.
About 0130, to my amazement, snowflakes began to collect on the window sill. I was a San Francisco kid — Sunset district — I’d never seen snow fall before. I slid open the window and stuck my head out and felt the snowflakes hitting my ears. For about 20 minutes, in the middle of that San Francisco night, I stood in my window and watched it snow so hard I could barely see across the street.
When it stopped about 0150, I got my camera, went outside and experienced snow crunching beneath my feet on Red Rock Way in San Francisco! Even more amazing, I had the snow and the moment all to myself — no one else was awake.
I debated whether I should start to scream, “Snow! Snow! Snow!” But didn’t.
There was about 2 inches of snow on the ground. You can see my foot prints in the snow in one of the pictures. Unfortunately, I only had six frames left on a roll of the old GAF 500 film (a horrible grainy color slide film).
I took three pictures of Red Rock Way and the snowy fireplug and the city in the background. I saved the remaining three frames for morning.
Sad, that early morning San Francisco snow has turned out to be literally once-in-a- lifetime event, but I’m extremely grateful to have experienced one of the most unique and beautiful moments in the city’s history.