For the first time in 12 years, the Bay Area is under a winter storm warning that brought snow around the foothills and mountains. And on Thursday, dozens of people took the day off to go see it.
Residents raced up to the summit between Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties to see what little snow remained by mid-morning.
But even seeing a little tiny bit of it, made it all worth it.
“Would you look at that!” said Jackie Costa.
Her 10 and 4-year-olds touched snow for the first time in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
They saw a post early Friday morning so she bundled up the kids and went out.
“We saw a video on Facebook of it snowing up here, so we figured we better get in the car and drive on up,” said Costa.
The snow started falling Wednesday afternoon and flurries picked up again Thursday morning.
Before sunrise, it was snowy enough for Caltrans to call in the snowplows to go up and down the Santa Cruz Mountains.
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Some drivers stopped by the summit to make a little snowman.
“I knew it was going to snow but not this much, I started morning run, and I was like ‘I’ll miss my run to see the snow’. I'm really enjoying it,” said Sheshans Yadav of San Jose.
It was only the second time co-workers had seen snow.
They were driving from San Jose to Santa Cruz early Thursday morning when there was more of it.
But once they got to work, they turned around to go back and see the flakes again.
“This morning I didn’t actually expect to see any snow because I thought it would be all gone, but it was snowing so it was beautiful,” said Farhana of San Jose.
“I was pretty surprised. I knew from the news that it was going to happen but I figured it’s not going to be that much. And then I saw it and was like, ‘oh, this is crazy,’” said Nooran of San Jose.
They didn’t have any problems driving over the winding Hwy. 17 Thursday morning and are hoping the flurries return – so they can enjoy this rare treat once again.
