Snow is falling - real snow - in Houston. 1 to 2 inches overnight. Probably just accumulation on the cars and some roofs. I would think the ground would be too wet for much of the ground to collect but I guess we'll see in the morning for sure. Whatever is there will certainly melt away by mid-morning but the kids will be incredibly excited to see the white stuff when they wake up (and even more excited if the schools close because the roads are too dangerous to travel on which sounds crazy to our northern friends but this is Houston for goodness sakes).

And since this is a Rice forum and it's Festivus, you may now air your grievances...

Two inches on the ground in Wharton at 7 a.m. 33 degrees, wind calm. Have already been out to collect house pix for future Christmas cards...don’t expect it to last long...

Montrose had a nice dusting (1/2" maybe) on cars, roofs, plants. Perfect snowball consistency.

(12-08-2017 02:58 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Snow is falling - real snow - in Houston. 1 to 2 inches overnight. Probably just accumulation on the cars and some roofs. I would think the ground would be too wet for much of the ground to collect but I guess we'll see in the morning for sure. Whatever is there will certainly melt away by mid-morning but the kids will be incredibly excited to see the white stuff when they wake up (and even more excited if the schools close because the roads are too dangerous to travel on which sounds crazy to our northern friends but this is Houston for goodness sakes).

And since this is a Rice forum and it's Festivus, you may now air your grievances...

Congrats -- Texas officially received snowfall before NYC - although we're supposed to get some tomorrow.

(12-08-2017 09:52 AM)TJS_NYC Wrote:  

(12-08-2017 02:58 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Snow is falling - real snow - in Houston. 1 to 2 inches overnight. Probably just accumulation on the cars and some roofs. I would think the ground would be too wet for much of the ground to collect but I guess we'll see in the morning for sure. Whatever is there will certainly melt away by mid-morning but the kids will be incredibly excited to see the white stuff when they wake up (and even more excited if the schools close because the roads are too dangerous to travel on which sounds crazy to our northern friends but this is Houston for goodness sakes).

And since this is a Rice forum and it's Festivus, you may now air your grievances...

Congrats -- Texas officially received snowfall before NYC - although we're supposed to get some tomorrow.

And before Chicago....though it is a brisk 17 degrees out there this morning!

Got a call from my Austin granddaughters last night squealing with delight as they tried to build a snow/slush man in the front yard.
And they got a snow day today! Doesn’t get any better than that for a third grader!!

Add Bangor, Maine to the list of places that haven't had snow yet this year. ha.

Did you know that the record for snowfall in Houston is 20.5 inches in 1895? I can't imagine what that would do to the city today. It would be like a Harvey event, except with snow.

I remember up to 7 inches in early Jan. 1973. All but shut the city down for 3 days. We had snow on the ground 3 times that winter.

(12-08-2017 11:29 AM)owl95 Wrote:  Did you know that the record for snowfall in Houston is 20.5 inches in 1895? I can't imagine what that would do to the city today. It would be like a Harvey event, except with snow.

When Galveston Bay froze over, 1821.
http://www.texasreader.com/when-galvesto...-over.html

(12-08-2017 11:37 AM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  

(12-08-2017 11:29 AM)owl95 Wrote:  Did you know that the record for snowfall in Houston is 20.5 inches in 1895? I can't imagine what that would do to the city today. It would be like a Harvey event, except with snow.

When Galveston Bay froze over, 1821.
http://www.texasreader.com/when-galvesto...-over.html

That was the little ice age.

TDIL that Jean Lafitte was not the same person as Lafayette. I never really thought much about the two at the same time, but I thought it was just an "alternate" pronunciation... I heard about Lafitte when I was pretty young, and Lafayette much later in adulthood, but somehow conflated the two and thought Lafayette's main career was as a ship captain.

(12-08-2017 10:51 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(12-08-2017 09:52 AM)TJS_NYC Wrote:  

(12-08-2017 02:58 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Snow is falling - real snow - in Houston. 1 to 2 inches overnight. Probably just accumulation on the cars and some roofs. I would think the ground would be too wet for much of the ground to collect but I guess we'll see in the morning for sure. Whatever is there will certainly melt away by mid-morning but the kids will be incredibly excited to see the white stuff when they wake up (and even more excited if the schools close because the roads are too dangerous to travel on which sounds crazy to our northern friends but this is Houston for goodness sakes).

And since this is a Rice forum and it's Festivus, you may now air your grievances...

Congrats -- Texas officially received snowfall before NYC - although we're supposed to get some tomorrow.

And before Chicago....though it is a brisk 17 degrees out there this morning!

...Well, maybe for December. We had snow on November 10th in Chicago. I should know, I chose to chaperone my daughter's field trip that day and it was a mess.

Enjoy it, Houston, but please make sure there's no trace of it when I'm in town for the holidays!!

And 4.5 " in Corpus Christi

(12-08-2017 01:21 PM)erice Wrote:  

(12-08-2017 10:51 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(12-08-2017 09:52 AM)TJS_NYC Wrote:  

(12-08-2017 02:58 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Snow is falling - real snow - in Houston. 1 to 2 inches overnight. Probably just accumulation on the cars and some roofs. I would think the ground would be too wet for much of the ground to collect but I guess we'll see in the morning for sure. Whatever is there will certainly melt away by mid-morning but the kids will be incredibly excited to see the white stuff when they wake up (and even more excited if the schools close because the roads are too dangerous to travel on which sounds crazy to our northern friends but this is Houston for goodness sakes).

And since this is a Rice forum and it's Festivus, you may now air your grievances...

Congrats -- Texas officially received snowfall before NYC - although we're supposed to get some tomorrow.

And before Chicago....though it is a brisk 17 degrees out there this morning!

...Well, maybe for December. We had snow on November 10th in Chicago. I should know, I chose to chaperone my daughter's field trip that day and it was a mess.

Enjoy it, Houston, but please make sure there's no trace of it when I'm in town for the holidays!!

Hmmm. No wonder I didn't remember it as I was down in Houston for Homecoming Weekend on 11/10., and didn't return until the 13th.

My family built the first steamboat made in Texas during the late 1830s and named it the Lafitte.

(12-08-2017 12:46 PM)I45owl Wrote:  

(12-08-2017 11:37 AM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  

(12-08-2017 11:29 AM)owl95 Wrote:  Did you know that the record for snowfall in Houston is 20.5 inches in 1895? I can't imagine what that would do to the city today. It would be like a Harvey event, except with snow.

When Galveston Bay froze over, 1821.
http://www.texasreader.com/when-galvesto...-over.html

That was the little ice age.

TDIL that Jean Lafitte was not the same person as Lafayette. I never really thought much about the two at the same time, but I thought it was just an "alternate" pronunciation... I heard about Lafitte when I was pretty young, and Lafayette much later in adulthood, but somehow conflated the two and thought Lafayette's main career was as a ship captain.

(12-08-2017 12:46 PM)I45owl Wrote:  TDIL that Jean Lafitte was not the same person as Lafayette. I never really thought much about the two at the same time, but I thought it was just an "alternate" pronunciation... I heard about Lafitte when I was pretty young, and Lafayette much later in adulthood, but somehow conflated the two and thought Lafayette's main career was as a ship captain.

Ack!
(As a New Orleanian and history buff, I learned about both the Marquis de Lafayette and the buccaneer Jean Lafitte as a youngster. Such completely different characters! Lafayette was a national hero with places named after him all over the U.S., while Lafitte was very much a regional hero, and to a large extent a creature of legend. Interestingly, an American flag flies perpetually over Lafayette's grave in Paris.)

(12-08-2017 11:29 AM)owl95 Wrote:  Did you know that the record for snowfall in Houston is 20.5 inches in 1895? I can't imagine what that would do to the city today. It would be like a Harvey event, except with snow.

(12-08-2017 10:30 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(12-08-2017 12:46 PM)I45owl Wrote:  TDIL that Jean Lafitte was not the same person as Lafayette. I never really thought much about the two at the same time, but I thought it was just an "alternate" pronunciation... I heard about Lafitte when I was pretty young, and Lafayette much later in adulthood, but somehow conflated the two and thought Lafayette's main career was as a ship captain.

Ack!
(As a New Orleanian and history buff, I learned about both the Marquis de Lafayette and the buccaneer Jean Lafitte as a youngster. Such completely different characters! Lafayette was a national hero with places named after him all over the U.S., while Lafitte was very much a regional hero, and to a large extent a creature of legend. Interestingly, an American flag flies perpetually over Lafayette's grave in Paris.)

Sam Houston met Lafayette during Lafayette's visit the US in 1823 and received a hair locket from him. Lafayette warned Houston
that the European crowns were hoping for the collapse of democracy in the US.

(12-09-2017 03:23 PM)JSA Wrote:  Sam Houston met Lafayette during Lafayette's visit the US in 1823 and received a hair locket from him. Lafayette warned Houston that the European crowns were hoping for the collapse of democracy in the US.

Although the "Sam Houston Project" mentions this locket and the 1823 date, Lafayette's famous return visit to America actually occurred in 1824-5. The congressional invitation was passed in January 1824. Houston was a U.S. Rep. from Tennessee at that time. Perhaps he met Lafayette in Washington (December 1824) or in Nashville (hosted by Houston's mentor Andrew Jackson) in May 1825.

There is no mention of the meeting in this 1854 biography of Lafayette or the two-volume journal of the trip, published in 1829. (Links to Vol. 1 / Vol. 2)