DEPARTMENTS

A Snowball’s Chance

December 5, 2025

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Students throwing snowballs on the Oval

Photo: Stanford News Service

On January 21, 1962, the campus community awoke to rare images of winter delight: frost coating the Quad, an icy blanket draped over Palm Drive, dorm decks flaunting a layer of ski lodge. Snow dusted the Farm again 50 years ago, when a single inch of powder on February 5, 1976, had students out building snowmen and taking to sleds. The only other snow day in Stanford’s sun-drenched, 134-year history took place on December 11, 1932. (Counting the blizzard of 1887 is questionable—the university was still under construction, the cornerstone yet to be laid.)