First snow after a remarkably pleasant November.

First Snow

November 29. 

Begins to snow this morning and snows slowly and interruptedly with a little fine hail all day till it is several inches deep. This the first snow I have seen, but they say the ground was whitened for a short time some weeks ago. 

It has been a remarkably pleasant November, warmer and pleasanter than last year.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, November 29, 1856

This the first snow. See

•  November  8, 1853 (“Our first snow,. . . The children greet it with a shout when they come out at recess. ”)
•  November 12, 1859 ("The first sprinkling of snow, which for a short time whitens the ground in spots.”)
•  November 13, 1851 ("The cattle-train came down last night from Vermont with snow nearly a foot thick upon it. . . .So it snows. Such, some years, may be our first snow.”)
•  November 13, 1858 (“We looked out the window at 9 P. M. and saw the ground for the most part white with the first sugaring, which at first we could hardly tell from a mild moonlight, — only there was no moon. Thus it comes stealthily in the night and changes the whole aspect of the earth.”)
• November 15, 1854 ("The first snow, a mere sugaring which went off the next morning.")
• November 17, 1855 ("Just after dark the first snow is falling, after a chilly afternoon with cold gray clouds, when my hands were uncomfortably cold.”)
• November 18, 1855 ("About an inch of snow fell last night, but the ground was not at all frozen or prepared for it. A little greener grass and stubble here and there seems to burn its way through it this forenoon.")
• November 23, 1852 ("There is something genial even in the first snow, and Nature seems to relent a little of her November harshness.”)
• November 24, 1860 ("Though a slight touch, this was the first wintry scene of the season. The rabbits in the swamps enjoy it, as well as you.”)
• November 26, 1850 ("An inch of snow on ground this morning, our first.") 
• November 29, 1856  ("Begins to snow this morning and snows slowly and interruptedly with a little fine hail all day till it is several inches deep. This the first snow I have seen...")
• December 3, 1854 ("The first snow of consequence fell in the evening, very damp (wind northeast); five or six inches deep in morning, after very high wind in the night.”)
• December 4, 1859 ("Awake to winter, and snow two or three inches deep, the first of any consequence.")
• December 4, 1860 ("The first snow, four or five inches, this evening."); This evening and night, December 22, 1860 ("the second important snow, there having been sleighing since the 4th, and now ")
•  December 8, 1850 (“The ground is now covered, - our first snow, two inches deep. . . . I am struck by this sudden solitude and remoteness that these places have acquired. The dear privacy and retirement and solitude which winter makes possible! This evening for the first time the new moon is reflected from the frozen snow-crust.”)
•  December 26,1853  (“This forenoon it snows pretty hard for some hours, the first snow of any consequence thus far. It is about three inches deep.”)
•  December 26, 1857 ("Snows all day, — first snow of any consequence, three or four inches in all.”).
• January 13, 1853 ("A drifting snow-storm last night and to day, the first of consequence; and the first sleighing this winter.")
  
  

See also November 30, 1856 ("Sophia, describing the first slight whitening of snow a few weeks ago, said that when she awoke she noticed a certain bluish-white reflection on the wall and, looking out, saw the ground whitened with snow."); November 28, 1858 ("In half an hour the russet earth is painted white even to the horizon. Do we know of any other so silent and sudden a change? "); January 26, 1855 ("What changes in the aspect of the earth!")