One winter while I was attending Fresno City College in Fresno, CA we had the rarest of events for the San Joaquin Valley. That year the temperature was over 100° on 31 days and less than 32° for the same amount of days. It actually snowed enough to cause a complete stop to most life in the city. The school system actually had to call a snow day. In an area were smudge pots go out at 15° it is even rarer to see the temperature below freezing especially during the day. The two colleges in town just happened to be in the midst of finals. They determined that despite the 1.57” of snow on the ground that the school would be open for testing. It was just miserable to take tests, especially since the one that I do remember was for a speech class and was held in one of the temporary buildings that covered part of the campus. These buildings were uncomfortable in most weather. Heat, rain even fog made these buildings terrible. Snow made them cold and it is hard to take a test when you are trying to stay warm in a heavy jacket.
No one could really drive in the city because not many had actually learned to drive in the snow. I know that this amount of snow is really nothing but just consider the location and the rarity of the event. It was so much easier to just walk to school and suffer with the cold and wet. Yes, it was uphill both ways and I really did have a struggle to get to the test.
The other day I was reminded of this while I was thinking about the strange weather that seems to be more the normal, then the unusual in our current world. It was a pleasant evening and I have no idea why it came to mind but it did. I spent most of my growing up years in the San Joaquin Valley and so my memory of weather is mostly confined to that area. We were always assured that it would be hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It would be in the 100° area every summer. You would always get a heat wave and the temperatures would come closer to 110° just after Labor Day when school started. The school system knew that would occur, but never did install air conditioning. They would just open up all the little windows in the class room and let us suffer. I do not remember any consideration for hydration or heat related distress for either the students or teachers. All that people considered was the fact that the hot dry heat was great to get the raisin crop done and in from the fields before the rainy season began. If you don’t know raisins are just grapes that are placed on trays and dusted with sulfur to protect them from insects and then left to dry in the rows between the grape vines. No fancy processing is used. So the hotter and the longer the heat wave goes the better the raisin crop. So we just “enjoyed” the hot weather to help the economy. This was the same, all the way through high school.
Winter it was either cold in the high teens at night or sometimes it was very foggy. Those who know the valley have at least heard of Tully fog. This very dense fog comes in the delta that is San Francisco bay and flows into the valley. It is very dense for all of the area. The density makes it almost impossible to see anything on the road while driving especially on the major highways. You did not get out of the fog driving south until you start up the Grapevine on highway 99. The same is true today on Interstate 5.
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Weather information was confirmed from the official NOAA weather bureau site covering statistics for the year 1962.
photo's from 1962 Ram, The Fresno City College yearbook, Les Woods photo editor
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