January 26, 2015
As the first significant snowstorm of the year closes in on Philadelphia, those lucky enough to have their day at school or work abridged or canceled entirely may care about an entirely different kind of question unrelated to safety or the rush-hour commute - will the snow be right for building a snowman?
The answer is yes.
“It is going to be a very wet snow,” said Mitchell Gaines, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Wet snow means that it will pack and hold together much better. Dry snow creates snowballs that break apart when they are thrown and frustratingly tend to miss their targets. Wet snow keeps the substance together and is ideal for snowball fights, snowmen, igloos etc. On the other hand, wet snow tends to be heavy, so shoveling might be more of a pain.
It’s unclear what Philadelphia should actually expect - snow totals keep changing as the line between moderate and severe accumulation continues to shift, but if the city should finally see a strong storm, this will be the first chance this winter to go out and enjoy it.
And like most things these days, there are countless Web pages dedicated to building the very best snowman.
Tips span from the obvious (stack snowballs from largest to smallest) to the less well-known (sock-based snowmen are a thing, apparently).
If you just moved to Philadelphia from Florida and haven't done this before or if you just want to see what others have done, here are some of the better tips out there:
1 - Snowmen have a basic structure. Traditionally, they consist of three snowballs that decrease in size from the ground up. Unfortunately, a search for a kind of Fibonacci-type sequence that would produce the perfect ratio between the circumference of the base and subsequent snowballs was unsuccessful.
WikiHow recommends that the bottom of the snowman be between 1 foot and 3 feet across. Levels of ambition and amount of available snow should dictate where your particular base falls on this scale.
2 - Snowballs should be packed firmly with two hands and proper safe lifting technique should be used to heave the snowballs on top of the base (lift with your legs, not your back, for example).
3 - Some guides say that flattening the top and bottom of the snowballs - with the exception of the one on top - can help them stack better. Others say that once the snowballs are stacked, it is wise to add a bit of snow between each section to give the snowman a more, well, human-like feel.
4 - After this, you’ll need to start looking for other items for the nose (often a carrot), buttons (pebbles or some similar item that may also be used for the nose and mouth) and arms, which are typically represented by properly shaped branches. Classic snowmen have top hats. These are becoming less available, so if you don’t have one handy, go with something else that is related - a favorite hat from a sports team, perhaps?
5 - Then there are the images that pop up with every snowstorm on Twitter where the typical three-snowball structure and basic features just aren’t going to cut it. Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes (of course) was famous for especially creative sculptures, such as a snowman pictured melting with a “repent sinners” sign in its hand.
The Internet is stock full of pictures of snowmen lifting weights, snowmen holding their own heads and, of course, great death scenes of melting snowmen who aren’t going to last for more than a few days.
So, if you are lucky enough to have the day off and won’t have to deal with the weather and feel like building one, please enjoy and send us a picture at news@phillyvoice.com.
