Will it ever snow again in Fayetteville?
There isn’t much that makes me happier than a good, school closing, tree-beautifying, deep, ground-covering, up-to-your-knees snow storm.
Growing up near Fayetteville, it seemed like it happened all the time. Every winter, we’d get two or three good ones, and as a kid, I would make snowmen, and snow angels, and have snowball fights and and make snow ice cream, and slide down the hills in Wilson Park or Mt. Sequoia, or somewhere in whatever we could find to make a sled or snowboard out of. It was awesome.
For the last several years, though, snow has been scarce in Fayetteville. Outside of a few good ice storms (including one really good one last year), we don’t get much winter precipitation at all lately. The cold weather today, and all the talk of snow on Twitter and Facebook got me thinking about the fact that I can’t even remember the last time we good a good 6 or more inches of snow in Fayetteville.
For those of you who’ve lived in the area a long time, am I crazy? Back in the 80’s and 90’s, didn’t we get more snow around here than we do now? Is it global warming? El Nino? (Remember El Nino?). I’m not talking about the dustings that we’ve seen in the last few years; the ones that come in the evening, and are melted by 10:00 am the next morning. I’m talking about a real snow storm.
Does anyone remember the last time we got some real sled-worthy, ground-covering, jump-off-the-roof-of-your-house-into-a-huge-pile-of-soft-frozen-awesomeness snow storm in Fayetteville? Are we ever going to get another one?
Do you guys even like snow?
[Photo by clappstar via Flickr and Creative Commons 2.0.]
Comments
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By ryan on December 2nd, 2009
Biggest single snow event I remember was about a foot back in 1993. But that’s atypical…even back then five to ten inches per season was average.
By Gracie on December 2nd, 2009
I’ve been here since 1985 and I totally remember it snowing more!
We used to live behind the old St. Joseph’s church and that was the best place to get lots of snow for snow men and you couldn’t beat sliding down Sutton street, if you got a good start, you could coast for an entire extra block.
By Michael on December 2nd, 2009
Definitely remember getting significantly more snow than we have anytime recently. The last big snows I remember were in the early 90s.
By burgerboy on December 2nd, 2009
Yes, I remember a lot of snow in the winter of 1999-00 in particular.
Its been a while since we had a good snow that stayed around for a week at least. Those used to be fairly common.
Maybe this winter.
By reed on December 3rd, 2009
I remember snow. I remember Chris Farley as El Nino. Both are relics of the 90’s now.
I think the last good one we got was in 2005/6. I seem to remember it being in March or something crazy like that, but schools were definitely closed for a few days surrounding a weekend. At the time I was driving from Memphis, so the whole experience was rendered quite unpleasant.
By skalmt on December 3rd, 2009
I remember snow days here! I was just thinking about the same thing recently…where did all the snow go? Just do what we’re doing at my house and mark a day on the calender and have an honorary snow day. Hole up in the house with your favorite winter beverages and some games and movies…snow be damned…we’ll have a good time without ya’!
By Dustin on December 3rd, 2009
Good idea @skalmt
By Mark_Landry on December 3rd, 2009
Tomorrow’s a snow day. Call in.
By Milky on December 3rd, 2009
@Mark_Landry: Done!!
By floatman on December 3rd, 2009
As a kid in the 70’s I remember not going to school for days,sometimes and entire week, because of snow. In high school in the 1980’s we would miss multiple days a year and typically have to extend the school year into summer break or make it up on Saturdays. Does anybody remember Sat. school? Not a lot of learning going on. The last significant snows were in the 90’s. I think that not only do we get less snow but the weather warms up quicker and it is gone. The snows in the 70’s would stick around because you could go weeks without getting significantly above freezing. As a side point ice storms were rare back then, now they happen regularly.
Skalmt, sorry but a snow day just isn’t the same without the snow. Nothing is better than having a hot chocolate while drying your clothes, gloves and shoes next to the woodstove before you head back out for more sledding.
By David Settgast on December 15th, 2009
During the UofA Spring Break of 99 we had an awesome snow. I remember walking from the Rose of Sharon apts, where I lived to the beer store on Dickson with a sled and then having people pay me to sled their booze home. That snow was on the ground for many days.
By Bobby Scarbrough on December 16th, 2009
I grew up here too, and as I remember it snow only came once every couple of years in massive amounts. I was here for the blizzard that hit around 1990 that wiped out tons of chicken houses, and took power down much like the ice storm last year.
It snows in Fayetteville a little every year though. I seem to remember it wiping power out between the ice and the snow last year. Personally, I could do without the power outages this year.
By burgerboy on December 29th, 2009
Hey beottchas. It snowed last week, and its going to snow again tonight!
All praise Dan Skoff!
By Bergf on January 26th, 2010
Yes! I remember the good snows when I was growing up the 90’s. We don’t have anything like that anymore! Wilson park would be the best sledding spot…now our snows are weak or our ice storms are hellacious. What’s the deal!
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