Weather Break -- Snowmaking

This is a transcript of the Weather Break radio show for Tuesday, January 29, 2008. This episode was written by Dr. Jon Schrage.

On Monday's episode of Weather Break, we talked about mankind's ongoing desire to be able to actually control the weather and the climate of his environment. Meteorologists know that it isn't really possible to have some kind of "weather control satellite" or anything like that--the atmosphere is just too big and too complex to be able to regulate like that for human purposes.

However, there are some ways in which scientists and engineers CAN control -- or at least INFLUENCE -- the weather of a region, especially if the region is pretty small. One example of this kind of work is snowmaking.

In the winter, ski resorts really only make money when there is enough snow on the ground for people to be able to ski. However, there really doesn't need to be snow all over the mountain; really, just on the ski trails and ski runs themselves is enough, especially very early and very late in the ski season. Since the total amount of land that they are trying to cover with snow is pretty small, ski resorts will typically practice a certain amount of snowmaking to either extend the skiing season or to help cover up bare or icy patches that may form on the runs.

Strictly speaking, snowmaking isn't exactly a form of weather modification, since the snow that is produced isn't falling from the clouds. In fact, snowmaking works just as well if the skies are clear as if they are cloudy! When a ski resort practices snowmaking, they pump water up the mountain through pipes. The water is combined with cooled and compressed air and then shot through a nozzle called a gun into cold, mountain air. By adjusting the mixture of air and water, the operator is able to produce tiny droplets of liquid water that are small enough to freeze into little ice crystals before they hit the ground. Sometimes, chemicals are added to the water, too, that facilitate the freezing.

If snowmaking sounds like they are pretty much just spraying water into the air and hoping that it lands in the form of ice, you're pretty much right. The process gets a little bit more scientific than that as newer snowmaking equipment can make use of weather information like temperatures and humidities to adjust the mixture of air and water correctly to optimize the efficiency of the process. Still, even under the best of conditions, snowmaking is an inefficient and expensive process. In the Western states in particular, simply securing the rights to the large amounts of water needed can be difficult or even impossible. That's why, even though snowmaking is technologically possible, it still only really makes sense to operate ski resorts in locations where the vast majority of the snowfall will be natural.

We have lots more information about snowmaking and weather at ski resorts on our website. As always, you can find us online at weatherbreak.creighton.edu. If you have questions or comments about anything that you have heard on Weather Break -- or anything to do with the weather, for that matter -- you can always call and leave us a message at 302-258-1617. We'd love to hear from you.

By the way, today is a very special day for us here at Weather Break. One year ago today, we aired our very first episode of this show! Today's is the 242nd episode, and we hope that we will be able to continue producing this program and sharing our enthusiasm for the atmosphere for a long time to come. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the people that make this program possible, both at Creighton and at the stations that so kindly allow us to have a few minutes of their air time each day: KINI in St. Francis, SD and KBRB in Ainsworth, NE. On behalf of everyone here at the Creighton University Department of Atmospheric Sciences, thanks for tuning in, and we hope that you tune in again tomorrow.