Any snow makers here?

OK, I know that's an ugly 4-letter word to a lot of you folks on here, I'm sure y'all get sick and tired of seeing snow.

But here on the coast of South Carolina, it's a very rare thing. We definitely get nights that are cold enough for snow, sometimes it gets as low as 15 degrees here at night, if you can believe that. Despite it being this cold, the weather never cooperates, the conditions are never just right for natural snowfall to occur.

In years past, I've been quoted as saying, "if it's gonna be this **** cold, I wish it would snow, so at least we have something to enjoy, besides just freezing and going crazy from cabin fever." Used to be, I would just grab my skis and my snowboard, and drive 7 hours to the NC mountains.

However, a few years ago, I discovered a way to bring the slope to my backyard, kinda.




I can hear people saying, "OK, WTH is this contraption, PSG? Looks like the worm of a moonshiner's still."





The 'worm' actually serves as a heat exchanger. You can see the fitting where a hose connects this to a pressure washer. The other fitting is for compressed air.

Also, I use a copper worm for the lower pressure going from the well to the pressure washer. This worm is placed in a barrel of cold water, and I add snow and ice to the barrel, this helps to pre-cool the well water, which comes out the ground at about 50 degrees during the winter.









What happens right here is the key to the whole thing. The vertical fitting is called a nucleation nozzle. This puts out an extremely fine mist, almost atomizing the water at about 1,000 PSI (which is why SS tubing is used for the worm, as copper could rupture) The nozzle that makes the 90 degree turn and is horizontal is an air nozzle, delivering about 5CFM @ 90 PSI. This action breaks down the water molecules, as well as supercooling the droplets, which helps in the next step....






These 3 nozzles are upper misting nozzles, they are specifically calibrated to deliver a certain droplet pattern, for optimum snowmaking. As the air supercools the droplets from the nucleation nozzle, they snap into a frozen state, and 'seed the clouds' caused by the upper misting nozzles.



So, what we end up with is something like this:




You can see the snow crystals forming in mid-air








Check out the neighbor's yard....not a flake of snow, so, you know this is not from natural snowfall.






And here's a video of the process in action, I document 32 inches of snowfall in about 12 hours, and that's something you NEVER see on the SC coast!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_NJ-q3BKx4&list=UUHYpuGo2zvfQcgL2J7VdAqA&index=37&feature=plcp

That is awesome!

Good stuff Man!

You mind if we vacation at your place this winter? :LOL2:

LOL, come on up to "Danner Elk" or "Beach Mountain" as we call it. Kinda like the ski resorts in NC called Banner Elk and Beech Mountain, but different.

No lift lines, and the slope is open 24/7, just as long as we have nights that are 27 degrees or colder! (27 is the threshold for snowmaking here on the coast, due to high humidity)

:mrgreen:

:beer: THATS WILD !! :LOL2: How much water did it take and how big is the compressor ?

Charger25 said:

:beer: THATS WILD !! :LOL2: How much water did it take and how big is the compressor ?

Click to expand...

This operation can be done with a standard 99 dollar Home Depot 110V pressure washer that delivers 1.5 GPM, and an air compressor that delivers at least 5 CFM @ 90 PSI. At this rate, you can make about 12-16 inches of snow in an average night.


I've actually got a T-fitting, with 2 pressure washers hooked to it, to double my volume to 3.0 GPM, which brings my nightly snowmaking rate up to about 32 inches. My compressor is a 60 gal, 6HP single stage, it puts out about 6CFM @ 90, which is enough to run one snowgun. But one of these days, I wouldn't mind upgrading to a 2-stage compressor, that would put out about 12-14 CFM, then, I could run 2 snow guns.

They also make specialized high GPM pressure washers that deliver about 8.0 GPM, and with one of these, we're talking about 6 feet of snow in one night!! Man, I'd love to have one of these, along with that 2-stage!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:



For those interested in doing this for a wintertime hobby, there's a website called SNOWATHOME.COM if you go on there, you can buy pre-made snow guns, or, for less than 100 dollars, you can buy the nozzles and make your own snowgun. Also, they have a weathermaking tool, as shown in my video, where you enter your zip code, and it will give the weather for the area, current temp, current wet bulb temp, and will even give you a 5-day snowmaking forecast!



Once you buy the DIY nozzle kit, to make the snowgun, you'll still have to buy all the fittings, etc.....and I strongly recommend using brass, or stainless, NOT steel, as steel will rust, and the rust particles will clog the very small orifices of the snowmaking nozzles. The brass fittings, etc, will run about 100 dollars or so, but they will last a long time, and without rusting from the inside out.


Now, as far as the water usage, this isn't really wasting any water, since it comes from a shallow well, once the snow melts, it goes back into the water table.

I've done it with city water, but I don't like to, as that costs money, not to mention city water is actually too clean for making good snow. The minerals, etc in well water, act as additional nuclei, helping to intensify and accelerate the nucleation of ice crystals. The only drawback about using the well water here, is that it's full of iron sediment, so, as the snow starts to melt, it gets kinda piss-yellow, which, the snow made with city water won't do.


For those interested, here's more info:

https://www.snowathome.com/faq.php

Water is no a problem,theres a creek at the bottom of the hill. Even in the driest summers it still has water. To get the water up the hill,I've got a 250 gal tote I could fill up, just a lil worried about the compressor. Man you've really got me thinking about this :LOL2:

Are you serious! I hate snow - you are lucky enough to avoid that nonsense and you make your own #-o


However, if I was 12 years old you would be my best buddy!

Charger25 said:

Water is no a problem,theres a creek at the bottom of the hill. Even in the driest summers it still has water. To get the water up the hill,I've got a 250 gal tote I could fill up, just a lil worried about the compressor. Man you've really got me thinking about this :LOL2:

Click to expand...

LOL. I hear ya! :mrgreen:

That's a lot of work, hauling 2500 pounds of water in a tote, up a hill. Not to mention, I don't think 250 gallons would be enough for a full night of snowmaking.

If it were me, I'd get a well pump with enough head pressure to pump that far uphill, and be done with it.

Captain Ahab said:

Are you serious! I hate snow - you are lucky enough to avoid that nonsense and you make your own #-o


However, if I was 12 years old you would be my best buddy!

Click to expand...

LMAO, I figured 'snow' might be an ugly 4-letter word to some people here. But as I said before, here on the coast of SC, we never curse snow, we love the rare occasion when we get to see it, because we only see a good snow (6"+) about once every 10 years or so. Last time was in February of 2010, we got about 6" on the coast, and oddly, the inland areas only got 1-2", it's usually the opposite.

Biggest snowfall I remember on the SC coast was in December of 1989, a couple of months after the disaster of Hurricane Hugo, we had about 15" of snow, and a white Christmas. I remember skiing behind the truck on waterskis with the fins removed.

My friends who have kids often come by when we've got snow, and the adults suddenly turn into kids themselves, as we have snowball fights, etc. A couple of years ago, when we had a really cold winter, I had several nights of snowmaking, and had it piled 8 feet high.

One of my friends in DNR was sledding down the slope with his boy on the sled with him, and in uniform, BTW! (He'd just gotten off work) I said "hey, Steve, I didn't know you were a SLED agent!" :LOL2: LMAO (SLED stands for State Law Enforcement Division)

Anyhow, when it gets cold here and the fishing is lousy, too cold to waterski or go boating, we know how to make the most of it and have fun! :mrgreen: 8)

Yeah might look into the pump thing, hauling water sometimes doesn't work out quite like how I'd like it to. :LOL2:

I think your tongue weight is a little high there! :mrgreen:
Cool snow making!

:LOL2: :LOL2: :LOL2: :mrgreen:


As Larry The Cable Guy would say

"Now THAT'S funny right there, I don't care who ya are!!!"


Yeah, I think maybe you SHOULD look into getting a pump, LMFAO!!

It happened in the blink of an eye, worst part was I lost my beer !! :shock:

Oh no! Alcohol abuse! [-X