Even in 1907, Seattle Couldn't Handle the Snow

One of my fondest memories of Seattle is watching, upon any kind of snowfall, cars careening about the streets like bowling balls on the deck of a storm-tossed ocean liner. Blame the city’s notorious snow freak-outs on two big factors: a relative inexperience with serious winter weather, and steep hills that can quickly freeze into the equivalent of grease-covered luge tracks.

Seattle’s received traces of snow four times this winter; the latest bout of barely frigid weather was enough to delay dozens of school districts on Monday in western Washington. But it turns out the region’s inability to deal with piddling amounts of frozen water isn’t isolated to the modern automotive age. Indeed, to believe this item from the Seattle branch of the National Weather Service, locals were being bamboozled by the powdery stuff that falls from the sky more than a century ago.