Weather prognosticators are an interesting bunch. Last year was a record crop of acorns, I don’t recall ever seeing so many. Some people took that as a sign that we were in for a heavy-duty winter. We had the opposite, it being fourth driest on record.

In the local columns of the Lassen Advocate of October 22, 1909, the paper reported: “The weather prophets say if the thin coating of snow on the summit of Diamond Mountain lasts any considerable time without melting, we may expect a light snowfall this winter. Some of those weather prophets have been watching this indicator for thirty years or more, and ought to know.” Those prophets were correct in their observation, as it turned out to be a dry cold winter, most of the Honey Lake Valley was fogged in during the month of January.

As El Nino is all the rage in the news, I did some research on the weather of the fall and early winter of 1910-11.  In January, 1911 Susanville received eight feet of snow, and so did Amedee on the eastside of Amedee. Most Honey Lake Valley locations received well over five feet. Which I will write more about it. I researched the weather and related topics starting in September 1910 to see if there might be some natural indicator. In early September there was a large bounty of wild plums. However the fruit crop in general was larger than normal, as for a change the area did not experience and early frost in the spring.

It is interesting to note that, that fall was drier than normal. No rain fell in September or October. The first measurable rainfall fell in the third week in November. Another warm storm hit in early December with two inches of rainfall, and the ground was not frozen, and there was no snow on the mountains. It remained in a dry pattern until the night of January 12 and by morning on Friday the 13th there was three feet of snow in Susanville. Two days later after the snow subsided Susanville had eight feet of snow, Standish, five feet of snow and Amedee and unheard eight feet of snow. To the north, however, Big Valley only received three feet of snow.

Several days after the big snow, it was followed by a heavy rain. While the snow was able to absorb it, it caused a lot of damage to buildings from the weight. The temperatures all winter were mild for the most part and on January 29 it was a balmy 55 degrees in Susanville and the snow had melted down to two feet. With the exception of a heavy wet two feet of snow on March 10, the rest of the winter remained dry.

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