Making snow in windy conditions is difficult for a wide variety of reasons. While you may not think 10 to 15 mph wind is much, it certainly is for snowmaking. Making snow in windy conditions is difficult even for the most experienced snowmaker. In fact some people who are avid home snowmakers won't even bother setting up their snowmaking equipment if the wind is over 10mph. We received a lot of emails over the weekend about wind so we have compiled the following tips to help you make snow in windy conditions.
The biggest problem with making snow in windy conditions is getting the snow to go where you want it to go. Even when the wind is at 0 mph you will notice the mist from the snowgun just hangs in the air until it falls to the ground. This is known as cure time and it is during this phase of the snowmaking process that the water freezes into snow. If the wind is at 5 mph, you will notice that the mist travels a distance away from the snowmaker. With winds at 15 mph the snow travels even farther away. This is primarily why experienced home snowmakers won't make snow in windy conditions. The snow they are making just blows away and goes into their neighbor's yard.
If you visit a ski resort you will notice most of the snowmakers are mounted on towers that range anywhere from 10 to 40 feet in height. This is to give the mist from the snowmaker increased cure time and allow the snowmaker to make the highest quality snow possible. The main reason why resort snowmakers have to be mounted high off the ground is because they flow a high volume of water. Since home snowmakers don't flow as much water, they can be mounted much lower to the ground. The lower a snowmaker is to the ground, the better it will perform in windy conditions. Some ski resorts lower the tower snowmakers to the ground so that they are just hovering over the trail in windy conditions. If they didn't the snow wouldn't get on the trail and it would go elsewhere.
The best tip we can give you for snowmaking in windy conditions is to not fight the wind. You will lose and your snowmaking experience will not be pleasant. If you position the snowmaker so that the wind pushes the mist back onto the snowmaker, you will eventually cause ice to build up on the snowmaker, and thus freeze up your nozzles. When this happens you have to wait for your snowmaker to thaw before you can make snow. So always position the snowmaker so that the wind doesn't push the mist back onto the snowmaker.
Another problem is having the wind not allow the nucleation nozzle mist to mix with the bulk water mist. If this happens, you will not make snow, but ice. External mix snowmakers are very difficult to make snow with in windy conditions because the nucleation nozzle setup sprays a VERY narrow mist. When the wind hits it, the mist often times blows around the snowmaker so that it doesn't mix with the bulk water nozzles. While our internal mix snowmakers often do better in windy conditions, they can do the same thing.
Even if the nucleation nozzle mist is mixing with the bulk water nozzles if the wind just pushes the mist to the ground before it freezes you will just make ice. Often times you will notice ice on the ground all around the snowmaker and snow on the ground a distance from the snowmaker. This is because the wind pushed all the mist to the ground before it had time to freeze and the only mist that froze into snow was the mist that traveled a distance away from the snowmaker.
While it may sound difficult to make snow in windy conditions, it's not impossible to do. Our advice to you is if you have trouble making snow in windy conditions that you just wait until the wind dies down. We guarantee your home snowmaking experience will be much more enjoyable and pleasant.
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