Strike a snow pose, Auburn: Shivering shutterbugs capture the first powder of winter in town

It snowed in Auburn on Thursday, Feb. 19, and some silly newspaper editor thought it would be a good idea to post a cool – make that freezing – picture of flakes falling around the clock tower at Lincoln Way and High Street on the Auburn Journal's Facebook page. But that wasn't enough. Proving even grizzled old newspaper editors with 47 years in the industry can get child-like tickled pink at the mere sight of snow, he invited readers to reply with their own photos of snowy Auburn with the promise of picking "two or three" to publish in this weekend's Journal newspaper. Thank goodness he didn't promise "A BRAND-NEW CAR," to coin a phrase from a 1970s TV game show, or a trip to beautiful, sunny Hawaii. Because readers dumped photos into the Facebook post at the rate snow fell at the ski resorts over the last five days (including 111 inches at the Sierra Snow Lab in Soda Springs, elevation 6,894 feet). So since you had as much fun capturing the moments as the silly editor did as he stood in the middle of Lincoln Way in 34-degree temperature, you don't win a brand-new car, but we are devoting pages A8 and A9 to your photos, though we could fill a book. The response was astonishing. A little more than 48 hours after posting the photo and invitation on the Journal's Facebook page, the post had drawn 367,000 views – yes, three-hundred sixty-seven thousand. That's territory never previously reached by Gold Mountain California News Media. Is that considered "going viral"? Asking for a grizzled old newspaper editor. That included nearly 3,100 reactions (emojis), 341 comments and 275 shares. That's a little more than the 4,000 or so physical newspapers printed by the Journal twice each week. Snow began to fall around 8 a.m. Thursday, continued for nearly two hours and was still sticking to lawns Thursday afternoon, and vehicles were covered with snow. It even hailed for a few minutes in the afternoon. Overall, Auburn saw 5.94 inches of rainfall in the seven-day period from Feb. 13-19, according to the precipitation total at Auburn Municipal Airport. That raised the season total, which began Oct. 1, to 27.43 inches. The normal for Feb. 20 is 22.98 inches. Another storm is forecast with light rain starting Sunday. It's warmer, so snow will be in the higher elevations only while Auburn and the lower-elevation areas should see rain into the middle of next week.