Snapshot In Time

The only thing about the weather that is usual, is the fact that it is always unusual. Those are the words of Keith Lingenfelter who, for 27 years covered the weather around Redding and Red Bluff for the U.S. Weather Bureau. It’s either too warm, too wet or too white. He liked to mention a big storm that came through our area in 1890, when May Southern was a Southern Pacific telegrapher stationed at Sims. She liked to keep a diary of the weather and noted that heavy rains began by November 1st and by the end of the season, more than one third of the 242 miles of track between Cottonwood and San Francisco had been washed out. That was the same 1890 when snow stacked up so deep in early January that one train coming through the Sacramento River Canyon stalled near Sims with 116 passengers on board. The snow continued falling for more than 60 hours, reaching a depth of eight feet with drifts that were even higher. Food on the train was soon exhausted and had to be carried to the women and children on foot from Sims.
In the photo here, taken about 1930, it shows Redding photographer Chester Mullen, right, and his friend Leland Gay trapped at the end of a road – where the snowplow stopped and backed out and went home. These two friends had to do the same thing.
So far this year we have had no rain to speak of and less snow. Despite our present dryness, if there is a lesson to be learned from the past, perhaps it is that we should be careful what we wish for.