Remember The Year El Paso Got 22 Inches Of Snow?

El Paso may be in the desert but we do occasionally get snow. One year, we got a you-know-what load of it.

We haven't seen any snow on the ground here in El Paso so far this year, although the mountains have been dusted a couple of times. It does snow here though, I swear.

Some years are better than others snow-wise and our "snow season" runs from late November through February.

The earliest "trace" of snow fell in October of 1925 and the earliest measurable amount, (1 inch), fell in October of 1980. The latest "trace" amount was in May of 1935. (May??) The latest measurable amount was 2 inches in April of 1980.

No, I'm not some sort of weather geek, I looked all that up at weather.gov. Just so you know, El Paso gets between 1 and 2 inches of snow annually. In 1987, we set a record WAY over the norm.

Between December 13th and 14th of 1987, the Sun City wasn't all that sunny as Mother Nature dropped 22 inches of snow on us. The EPFD reported 26 inches in Northeast El Paso.

El Pasoans flip out at the thought of snow, let alone having it actually happen. You can imagine the insanity that went down as all that snow came down. Businesses closed, roads closed, Trans Mountain impassable, etc, etc. You know, kinda like when it rains.

Back then, the star on the mountain was only lit during the Christmas season and, for the 1987 season, it didn't light on the night it was supposed to.

Nobody from El Paso Electric could get to it.