Why Does Snow Pack Better Near the Melting Point?

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of the 3'6" snowman that I made today, Tuesday, on Halloween 2023. We had our first snow of the season today in Chicago, and we got just enough for a snowman. It packed well with temperatures in the mid 30's.

 

[JT Smith]

An Australian acquaintance of mine once told me that it does snow in some part of Australia, especially those around the center of the continent. You never have winter vacation there?

I suppose many people in Australia prefer not to think of Tasmania as part of the country. Kind of like we in the U.S. do with Texas. But in any case it snows in Tasmania, Australia every winter.

It often snows a little in the summer as well.

And it is typical that the temperature is hovering around zero, often conducive for making snowballs or snowmen.

 

[Haborix]

Kind of like we in the U.S. Texas do with Texas the U.S.

Fixed that for you.

 

[JT Smith]

Fixed that for you.

Ha! I think you're right that there is a mutuality to the feeling between TX and at least some parts of the U.S. I'm not sure that's true of TAS and the rest of Australia though. At least it's not the sense I've gotten from talking to the locals.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 4'4" snowman I made today, Sunday November 26, 2023, in Chicago. Temperatures were just above freezing, so it packed very well. I did need to use a dowel rod through it and several inches into the ground to keep it upright, because there wasn't enough snow to put between the layers and at the base.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 4'0" snowman that I made today, Sunday New Year's Eve 2023 in Chicago. The snow packed very well, but I had only about a half inch of snow to work with. I used a dowel rod going through it and into the ground to keep it from tumbling over, since I didn't have any extra snow to put at the base and between the layers. Happy New Year. :)

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of the 5'2" snowman that I made today, Saturday 1-6-24, along with the snowman from New Year's Eve which is now 2' 10" tall. The snow packed very well today with temperatures just above freezing in Chicago.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is the latest photo of the snowmen in my backyard, taken today, Wednesday 1-10-24, by my neighbor lady. Yesterday we had a lot of rain and melting snow in Chicago, so the first two snowmen shrunk a lot, but I was able to make a 3rd one which is the 3'4" one on the left. The middle one is from Saturday when it was 5'2", but it is now at 3'8", and the one on the right is from New Year's Eve, and is now 2' 10". Temperatures were just above freezing in Chicago yesterday, so the snow packed very well, but I had a limited amount of snow to work with. They had forecast a possible 6" of snow, but fortunately most of it came down as melting snowflakes or rain, and I didn't need to shovel any snow from the sidewalks.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

We had more snow today in Chicago, so I built a 4th snowman this morning. See the above photo. This one started out at 4'6", but is now shrunk to 3'10". Temperatures were a couple degrees above freezing, so the snow packed very well, and I had plenty of snow to work with.

 

[OCR]

Temperatures were a couple degrees above freezing, so the snow packed very well. . .

Lol, the snow won't pack at all here.. .

Click to enlarge. . .

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above are the latest photos of the snowmen in my backyard in Chicago=I'm now up to 5. The 5th snowman I made today, Monday January 22, 2024, from snow that we had on Friday, but temperatures were too cold for it to pack. Today it warmed up to 33 degrees, and the snow packed fairly well.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above are the latest photos of the snowmen in my backyard in Chicago. I now have 6=this is the first year that I have ever had more than 2 at the same time. The one I made today, Tuesday January 23, 2024 is 4'3" tall. It is also from Friday's snow, like the one I made yesterday. It was too cold to pack until yesterday.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of the 2'6" snowman that I made on Friday 2-23-24. The photo was taken Saturday 2-24-24. This was the only snowman I was able to make this February, as we've had very springlike weather for much of February in Chicago. This snowman took a lot of work because there was very little snow to work with, and it came down too cold or too dry to pack well. (I'm posting this one a week later, because I forgot to post it a week ago). Very different from January where I had 6 snowman in the backyard a month ago. (see pictures above in previous posts).

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 2'7" snowman that I made Friday 3-22-24. Packing conditions were good, but I had very little snow to work with. The photo was taken today, Saturday 3-23-24. We had almost no snow this March in Chicago. This is the first snowman I was able to make since about a month ago in February.

 

[DennisN]

Packing conditions were good, but I had very little snow to work with.

I can see that. It seems you used up all the available snow.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of the 2'7" snowman I made Friday, 3-22-24. @DennisN This photo was taken just after I built the snowman. You can get a good idea of how much snow there was=and see where I rolled the balls to make the grass bare. By the next day, all the snow was gone (in the other picture), but I thought it would be worthwhile to post this picture as well. :)

 

[sbrothy]

Always nice to see grownups having/taking the time to goof around in the snow. :)

You think there's some psychology at play here? Missing your childhood, perhaps?

Nah, you're probably just goofing around. It's funnier with children though :P

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 3'6" snowman that I made today, Thursday 11-21-24. We had our first snowfall of the season today in Chicago.

 

[Charles Link]

 

[Charles Link]

The above is a photo of a 4'4" snowman that I made today Friday December 20, 2024 in Chicago. Packing was ideal with temperatures at 35 degrees, but there is a cold wind out of the north, so the temperature will be dropping shortly. It's likely to be around at least through Christmas.