How do ski resorts make snow

In the s, Canadian researchers were studying the way ice forms on jet engines when they decided to spray water through one in a refrigerated wind tunnel. The result was an indoor snow squall, which gave ski fanatics on hand an idea: man-made powder.

Soon after, snowmaking machines began popping up in New England. These days, nearly every resort on the planet relies on artificial snow to boost its base depth—or allow skiing outright. In fact, of the ski areas in the National Ski Areas Association employ snowmaking. And machines are infinitely more sophisticated, pumping out feet of snow at a time. The WBT is the temperature read by a thermometer covered in a water-soaked cloth plus moving air source — similar to what the water droplets experience as they are thrown from the cannon.

The lower the humidity the more snow can be produced per hour. Snowmaking is more efficient in low humidity when the air is less saturated with water because water cools faster source , therefore making larger snow crystals from each droplet.

A whole host of hidden infrastructure needs to be set up to feed water, electric and pressurized air to the snow systems. The average snowmaking machine makes that much snow in 1 minute! All this electricity goes to power the pumps, the fans, and the pressure jets.

Hi-tech computer systems are often installed to constantly monitor humidity and temperature and adjust the pressure to maximize snow conditions. It takes a skilled workforce to manage the machines, keep them running, move them around the slopes and a small army of snowplows to spread out the snow.

Laying manmade snow into piste base. Photo by Rudi Riet. With the ski season being only months, each ski day the resort can stay open, the more revenue they can generate. That is up until spring and early summer when visitor numbers drop off and many resorts will close even when there is enough snow to stay open. According to the European Environment Agency, since the length of the snow season in the northern hemisphere has decreased by five days each decade source.

This is a worrying trend and means the demand for artificial snow is only going to increase. Hopefully, advances in technology can make for more sustainable and less energy-intensive snowmaking — otherwise, the environmental cost and the cost of ski passes is going to rise. The exact length of a ski season depends on We may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page.

Photo by Antti Nissinen. Compressed air snow lance. Natural snow is all our planet knew for billions of years, but as global warming begins to take its toll on seasonal snowfalls, the skiing industry is turning increasingly to technology to make its own. An early snow machine was basically just a giant hose.

A modern snow machine boasts sophisticated onboard weather stations, adjustable nozzles and complex software, able to maximise snow output with every change in temperature or humidity. Natural snow is made from water vapour.

Human-made snow crystals are made from freezing liquid water. In most other ways, however, the process is similar. A snow machine can be one of two types: the lance snow gun and the fan snow gun. Pictured on this page is a fan snow gun, which looks something like a giant hairdryer with a fan in the middle and an outlet ringed by metal teeth. Most of the teeth are tiny nozzles that spray fine droplets of water. Nestled among them are nozzles that work as nucleators.

Just as with natural snow, the water droplets sprayed by a snow machine need some help from a particle to initiate the freezing process. But instead of spitting out dust or pollen, the mechanical nucleators make tiny ice particles to do the job. Compressed air is shot up through the nozzle, where it meets water and splits it into tiny droplets. The giant fan now propels these seeds into the air alongside the fine mist of water droplets.

As the droplets encounter the seed, they stick to it and begin to freeze.