{"id":194765,"date":"2026-02-26T13:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/194765\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:09:12","slug":"it-snowed-in-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/194765\/","title":{"rendered":"It Snowed In San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re used to seeing California snow in places like the Sierra and mountains of the Los Angeles Basin, leading to epic ski conditions in the high country.<\/p>\n

But 15 years ago on Feb. 26, 2011, an unusually cold storm system<\/a> produced a rare sight: falling snow at sea level in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

These early morning flakes didn’t amount to much. Officially, it went into the records as a “trace” of snow.<\/p>\n

But the spectacle of snowflakes in the city, rather than just atop Twin Peaks or in the East Bay Hills, was quite a sight as temperatures plunged to new daily records in the low-mid 30s.<\/p>\n

Snow did accumulate in several other locations unaccustomed to it, including Carmel Valley, just southeast of Monterey, and along the Big Sur Coast, where 3 inches was seen on the ground.<\/p>\n

According to Bay Area meteorologist Jan Null, it has been 50 years since the last measurable snowfall in San Francisco, a 1-inch event on Feb. 5, 1976. Null noted 10 other such snow events prior to 1976<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The city’s heaviest snowfall on record was on Feb. 5, 1887, when 3.7 inches was measured downtown, with some 7-inch totals in other parts of the city.<\/p>\n

(MORE: The Weirdest Places It Has Snowed<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"California<\/p>\n

NWS-Monterey, California<\/p>\n

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky<\/a>, X (formerly Twitter)<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n