How Is Artificial Snow Made?

When not enough snow falls at winter sports resorts, artificial snow is used to supplement nature’s deficit. Despite its name artificial snow is not made of different materials from real snow. Natural hexagonal snowflakes are made when ice crystals form around minute particles of dust or chemical substances in the air, or when it is very cold, ice crystals form directly from water vapor. Artificial snow is made from just air and water under cold conditions.

The process in which snowflakes, both natural and artificial, form around minute particles is called nucleation. Snow cannons use a mixture of water droplets and compressed air to form small ice crystals that can start the nucleation process. As the compressed air is released, it expands and cools rapidly, freezing the water droplets. These frozen droplets then mix with larger water droplets, which freeze onto the smaller droplets, creating snow. Because the process of freezing the original ice droplets takes time, the droplets are released into the air using a large fan or from a high tower, giving the droplets more time to freeze as they fall through the air.