How to build the best snowman

So, wet snow is best for building a snowman. But surely all snow is made of water, so how can it be wetter or drier?

One way to classify how wet snow is is not by how much water would be produced if it melted but instead by how much free water it contains relative to the number of ice crystals – the less free water, the drier the snow.

WATER CONTENT IN SNOW

DRY: 0% water

MOIST: less than 3% water

WET: 3 to 8% water

VERY WET: 8 to 15% water SLUSH: more than 15% water

Dry snow doesn’t stick together as well and slush doesn’t hold its shape, so moist to wet snow is best for snowman building. When it is colder, more water vapour freezes into ice crystals and produces drier snow, meaning that temperatures around or just above 0°C at ground level are ideal.

When actually constructing your snowman, it is also helpful to pack the snow as tightly as possible as this causes it to melt slightly and then refreeze into ice crystals, binding it together.

The bigger your snowman, the more difficult it is to pack tightly and the less stable the structure will be.

It is quite difficult to make a giant snowman without it collapsing.

Spheres are the easiest shape to compact, hence the classic shape of balls of snow decreasing in size, with the largest at the bottom and the smallest at the top.

After that, you can let your imagination run wild... although no snowman is complete without a carrot for a nose, of course.