40 years ago, it snowed in Lodi

Forty years ago this weekend, Lodi residents awoke in the middle of the night to something a bit unusual: snow.

Local weather observers missed recording the event, so it's not in historical data, but photos provided by local residents show solid proof of snow in December 1968.

Don Hawkinson was working the graveyard shift as a Lodi police officer, and he remembers cars spinning out on Turner Road.

"People weren't accustomed to driving in the snow in Lodi. It started out pretty light but by 2 a.m. it was piling up," he said.

Nobody was hurt, as he recalled, but a couple of people left their cars where they stopped and retrieved them in the morning.

"When we started the shift we said, 'Well, what are we going to do if we need chains?' and everyone horse-laughed, but later on we started worrying," Hawkinson said.

The snow kept up, and police actually called a local auto shop to inquire if they had tire chains to use on the patrol cars. The snow stopped before chains were needed.

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Hawkinson snapped black and white photos of snow covering the windows of old Dodge patrol cars. Back then, the cars had two lights on top. They were equipped with a wind-up siren, which sometimes dimmed the lights when it was in use, Hawkinson said.

Another Lodi resident, Doris Cavanaugh, still has a color photo of her former home on Connie Street. The sun is shining on a wooden snowman prop in the yard. It's surrounded by about an inch of snow.

The handwritten date on the back says Dec. 20, 1968.

"I was born in Lodi and that's the worst I've ever seen," said Cavanaugh, now 87. "I barely remember the one in 1930, but we lived in the country then."

The Desert Research Institute, which keeps weather data from across the country, has a record of 1.5 inches of snow on Jan. 12, 1930. The institute also recorded half an inch of snow on Jan. 4, 1950, and a trace amount in 1972.

Based in Las Vegas, the institute keeps decades worth of weather data that is used by the National Weather Service.

The 1968 event isn't in the record books, but that could be a result of when the volunteer observer in Lodi actually took a recording, said Jim Ashby, a service climatologist with the institute.

The Lodi volunteer measured 0.22 inches of "precipitation," meaning rain, not snow, at 6 p.m. on Dec. 20, 1968. That means the next observation wasn't made until 6 p.m. the following day, so the snow may have melted by then, Ashby said.

The evening moisture, combined with cold temperatures from those days, means that yes, snow was definitely possible, Ashby said. The high on Dec. 20 was 47 and the low was 30 — definite snow temperature. The following day had a high of 45 and a low of 24, also cold enough to snow.

For that matter, Ashby was in Davis in February 1976 and remembers snow throughout the Central Valley. He looked up that date and found nothing for Lodi, but three-tenths of an inch of snow in Stockton.

Snow isn't in the forecast for Lodi this Dec. 20, but the 1968 flurries were enough to make plenty of memories.

Hawkinson certainly knows when it snowed, because his wife gave birth to their daughter later that week, and he had no problem remembering her Dec. 26 birthdate.

He was on patrol during some of the snow, and it was enough to get Lodi residents out of their beds.

"People were out in their pajamas making snowballs, and there were lots of flash cameras," he said.

His wife even recorded it on 8-mm film, though they're not sure if they still have a projector to watch the home movie.

The next morning, the Hawkinson couple snapped photos of their three dogs, who had apparently tried to get away from the snow by climbing to their doghouse roof — which was also covered in snow.

Hawkinson later went to work for the Fire Department and retired 17 years ago. After four decades, that snow still brings back memories.

"That was an interesting night," he said.

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

Mrs. S. wrote on Dec 19, 2008 7:33 PM:

" I remember the fun I had on that day! It was wonderful. I also remember the snow in '76. I was in middle school then, and I was hoping it would stick, but it didn't.

If the first record snow was in 1930, and the next was in '68, then we're overdue for another one! "

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