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PHOTOS: Old school Seattle in snow, failing at driving

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Slideshow Icon1 of 9In the grand tradition of Seattle's public transportation going ass over tea kettle: Madison Street Cable Car derailed in snow at 1st and 2nd avenues, Jan. 1929.
Credit: Courtesy of Seattle Muncipal Archives 3258

If you've lived in Seattle for a long time, you know that snow is unusual, and increasingly so.

We looked at weather records and found that the 10 snowiest days on record were mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, according to the Seattle Weather Blog. (There were also two super snowy days in 1985, which some of you may remember.)

Heaviest snowfall hit on Jan. 13, 1950, with 20 inches of snow. That must have been a cold month, because another 10 inches came down two weeks later.

Other snowy days:

Jan. 27, 1969 — 14.9 inches.

Dec. 31, 1968 — 9.8 inches. (The Alaskans and Midwesterners are laughing, but if they're reading this, they probably live in the Seattle area, and for good reason.)

Dec. 23, 1965 — 8.9 inches.

We combed the Seattle Municipal Archives for photos of those days gone by, and they are wonderful and oh-so familiar. Turns out, our public transportation has always gone sideways on icy hills and dogs are often the stars of snow photography.

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