We were still in bed when the phone rang about 7:15 a.m. “Have you looked outside?” the caller asked. We peered out our bedroom window and were awe-struck at the thick layer of white powder blanketing our back yard.

“Wow!” Edy exclaimed. “Wow!”

We quickly got out of bed and got dressed, eager to document this historic wintry scene. As Edy videotaped our snowy yard and neighborhood – including kids and dogs building snowmen and sledding in the nearby park, Chris headed out and about Petaluma with his 35mm camera to get other images of the snowy town.

By 8 a.m., the snow was already starting to melt and you could see and hear the melted precipitation dripping off of trees and roofs.

"Amazing," "awesome" and "once in a lifetime" were among some of the descriptions Chris heard around town as Petalumans reveled in the snow.

Children and their parents frolicked on the path and hillside east of Sonoma Mountain Elementary School before classes -- sliding on saucers and toboggans, throwing snowballs and building snowmen.

The unusual event was attributed to cold temperatures and an unstable air mass that brought precipitation in the form of rain, snow, sleet and hail to the Bay Area. The National Weather Service issued a rare winter weather advisory in response to a "very cold Pacific storm" from the Gulf of Alaska that dropped snow from Sonoma County to Monterey Bay.

Argus-Courier columnist Bill Soberanes, a lifelong Petaluma resident, said he had never seen this much snow fall in town. He said he was awakened at 4 a.m. by playful friends flinging snowballs at his window.

By noon, most of the snow had melted, but snowmen stayed intact most of the day and patches of snow were still visible on Sonoma Mountain just east of town.

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