Mirtha Stadler, in Gaithersburg, has finally provided an explanation for the snowfalls we seem to see each Dec. 5 in Central Maryland.

Ms. Stadler's father, Bernardo Sapcariu was 78 when he died in September 2002. He had been very close to his granddaughter Rachel, Mirtha's daughter. Rachel is now a 10th grader at Quince Orchard High. But she was just 6 when her Grandpa passed away. Her first birthday without her grandfather was on Dec. 5, 2002, and it began to snow.

"She [Rachel] was sitting at the kitchen table, and next to the table there was a window," Mirtha wrote. "She looked up at the sky and said, 'Thank you, Grandpa.'"

"I looked at her and asked her, 'Why did you say "Thank you, Grandpa?"'

"She said, 'Because Grandpa could not be here to spend my birthday with me, and he knows how much I love snow, [so] he gave me snow for my birthday.'"

"At that point, the phone rang and it was my sister-in-law, and she asked me why I was crying, and I told her, and of course we both started to cry," Mirtha continued.

"So the reason that it snowed every year on Dec. 5th is because Grandpa gave my daughter a birthday gift. She is now 15, and still wishes for snow on her birthday."

And on the two - now three - years since 2002 when it hasn't snowed on Dec. 5, Mirtha said, "Rachel said that Grandpa's snow machine was broken, and he was working on it." When snow finally came, "it was a belated birthday gift."

(SUN PHOTO: Snow in Annapolis, Dec. 5, 2002)