Snow cannon

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Full blast snow cannon at The Nordic Centre, Canmore, Alberta, Canada

A snow cannon (also called snowgun, snow maker, or fangun) is a device used to produce snow artificially. The product may be called artificial snow or man-made snow. A snow cannon works by nebulizing water and allowing it to freeze into snow. The device is often used by ski hills and ski resorts to supplement naturally occurring snow and extend the skiing season.

For the purposes of skiing, most enthusiasts consider man-made snow to be inferior to naturally occurring snow. This is due to the fact that man-made snow does not form snow flakes like natural snow; instead, man-made snow forms crystals that are more dense than natural snowflakes.

Snow cannon constructors have been following these aims:

to maximize the amount of snow made,
to extend the period in which snow can be made,
to minimize the amount of energy needed,
to minimize the impact on the environment.

Homemade snow cannons are gaining in popularity.

1 Construction details
2 Commercial Snow Gun Manufacturers
3 Homemade snow cannons
4 Home Snow Making Information Sources and Companies
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Construction details

Rear view of snow cannon at Mölltaler Gletscher, Austria, showing the powerful fan.

There are two main styles of makers: air water guns and fan guns. An air water gun can be mounted on a tower or on a stand on the ground. It uses higher pressure water and air, while a fan gun uses a powerful axial fan to propel the water jet to a great distance.

A modern snow fan usually consists of one or more rings of nozzles which inject water into the fan air stream. A separate nozzle or small group of nozzles is fed with a mix of water and compressed air and produces the nucleation points for the snow crystals. The small droplets of water and the tiny ice crystals are then mixed and propelled out by a powerful fan, after which they further cool through evaporation in the surrounding air when they fall to the ground. The crystals of ice act as seeds to make the water droplets freeze at 0°C (32 °F). Without these crystals water would supercool instead of freezing. This method can produce snow when the wet-bulb temperature of the air is as high as -2 °C (28.4 °F). The lower the air temperature is, the more and the better snow a cannon can make. This is the main reason snow cannons are usually operated in the night. The mix of all water and air streams and their relative pressures is crucial to the amount of snow made and its quality.

If conditions are below the curve snow can be made.

Wet-bulb temperature is considerably lower than dry-bulb temperature when air relative humidity is low. Wet-bulb temperature takes into account that the water droplets cool themselves by evaporation. Artificial snow can be made when the (dry-bulb) air temperature is as high as 4.5 °C (40 °F).

Modern snow cannons are fully computerized and can operate autonomously or be remotely controlled from a central location. Operational parameters are: starting and stopping time, quality of snow, max. wet-bulb temperature in which to operate, max. windspeed, horizontal and vertical orientation, sweeping angle to cover a wider area, sweeping may follow wind direction.

The snow cannon was invented by Art Hunt, Dave Richey and Wayne Pierce in 1950 ^[1] ^[2], who went on to patent it. ^[3]

[edit] Commercial Snow Gun Manufacturers

[edit] Homemade snow cannons

Homemade snow cannons are fast becoming a hobby among many snow enthusiasts^[4] There are many types of home snow makers such as the "Combo Gun" and the "Tee Gun." A Tee Gun uses low pressure water and high pressure air (from an air compressor) while more advanced models like the Combo Gun and Fan Guns require a pressure washer or high pressure pump. There are snow cannons that are sold to consumers at home for 100-2000 dollars, but a homemade snow cannon can make the same amount of snow for about 300 dollars (including pressure washer and air compressor). Home snow makers can make anywhere from less than an inch to over 6 inches of snow an hour depending on certain air/water mixtures, temperature, wind variations, pumping capacity, water supply, air supply, and other factors. Some snow enthusiasts have spent thousands of dollars to fully automate their own snow systems and design new forms of snowguns based on their needs.