Wetbulb Temp

[RossiSkier]

In the recent past there has been some snow goats on the site talking about the necessary conditions to produce man-made snow. The key indicator is the wetbulb temperature. Powderhound21 said that he makes snow for a living and that the wetbult temp needs to be at least 28 degrees to make snow.

Question for those who are knowledgable on the topic:

Where can one go to find the wetbulb temperature, or to calculate it? Is there a website?

I can't find a website but there is a program out there called PsychroCalc that can do it.

 

[skibum1321]

Re: Psychrometrics

Powderhound21 said that he makes snow for a living and that the wetbult temp needs to be at least 28 degrees to make snow.

Didn't he also say that he was a high school student? I don't know too many ski resorts that let minors make the snow.

 

[ctenidae]

He makes snow in his backyard.

Wetbulb temperature is a combination of temperature, humidity, pressure and/or dew point.

Here's an easy calculator (NOAA wins again!)
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/elp/wxcalc/dewpoint.shtml

Here's an explanation of the math. Good luck:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/elp/wxcalc/formulas/rhWetBulbFromTd.html

Apparently, you could also put a piece of cloth with a wick in a cup of water around the temp guage, and that'll give you a wetbulb.

Do not put a lamp in the bathtub. That will give you a wet bulb, and a permanent orange afro.

 

[RossiSkier]

Excellent ctenidae. THanks.

 

[andyzee]

Rossi, you going into the snow making business? :lol:

 

[RossiSkier]

Rossi, you going into the snow making business? :lol:

If the wetbulb temp has to be a certain degree to blow snow then it would be useful to know where we stand. But then again if I could support my family as a snow goat, I would jump on the chance.

 

[Powderhound21]

Wetbulb is crutial to snowmaking. Im waiting on it to drop right now. I have a 36 temperature, a 60% humidity, therefore, my wetbulb it 31. It needs to be a max of 28.4*F wetbulb for any mammade snow. That is the magical temp.

About my snowmaking- I make snow on my terrain park. I can fit 3 rails and 2 booters in it without getting crowded. I can make 2.5 cubic feet of snow per minute with my system running full capacity. I would show you my site, but unfortunately it has been frozen because of so much traffic.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.


Waiting on a temp drop,
Ryan.

 

[Zand]

I'm also partly into snowmaking. I have a gun outside right now and I'm headed out to fire it up in 5 minutes for the first time this season. The WB Temp is 28.2 and the DB Temp is 32.0, both of which are borderline. I'm gonna leave it running as long as I can tomorrow and tomorrow night. I hope to make a big enough patch to drive my snowmobile around on.

 

[Powderhound21]

Wow, another home snowmaker! Would you by any chance be on snowguns.com?

 

[Zand]

No. Actually, I got it over the summer, so not only is it running for the first time this season, it's the first time ever for me. Seems to be running fine since I started it. I hope I wake up to a nice patch of white outside.

 

[Powderhound21]

Sounds like you are referring to a single unit. Did you buy a BYB? (Backyard Blizzard)

 

[Zand]

Ci, amigo.

But in 10 years, I'll have 30 HKD's lining the trail. :wink:

 

[Powderhound21]

Yep, thats the dream there. I started out with 1 that on a good night, Id have a 6" pile. Now I am armed with 2 high output internal mix guns and a 4gpm fangun. I went from like .2 cubic feet of snow per minute to 2.5 per minute. Next year I hope to double, maybe triple that.

 

[John84]

Yep, thats the dream there. I started out with 1 that on a good night, Id have a 6" pile. Now I am armed with 2 high output internal mix guns and a 4gpm fangun. I went from like .2 cubic feet of snow per minute to 2.5 per minute. Next year I hope to double, maybe triple that.

How much would you estimate you've spent since you starting making snow in your yard?

 

[Powderhound21]

Over $1000. But dont be discouraged, Its an awesome hobby. And nice to see another southerner on here!

 

[salida]

To get the "actual" wetbulb temperature for your location, you can either use a sling psychrometer, or you can find your reporting stations wet bulb temperature as it is in the hourly metar observations, for instance in the mount washington observatory hourly metar obs line there are two temperature values M15/M15, the first is metric air temperature ie minus 15, the second is the wet bulb temperature, also m15, suggesting at this moment there is 100% humidity resulting in freezing fog... I have pasted the ob below...

KMWN 111252Z 30071G76KT 0SM -SN FZFG VV000 M15/M15 RMK SNB15 LGT ICG

-Porter

 

[ctenidae]

And nice to see another southerner on here!

Born in Arkansas, moved to NC at 16, moved up here at 25. American by birth, Southern by the grace of God (and other neolithic comments as appropriate).

I'm a reverse carpetbagger. I got tired of hearing from all the yankees how much better things are in the north, so I came to see for myself. Skiing's better.

 

[Mark D]

Wow, another home snowmaker! Would you by any chance be on snowguns.com?

i am as mark_in_pa

 

[Powderhound21]

Wow, another home snowmaker! Would you by any chance be on snowguns.com?

i am as mark_in_pa

Awesome man! 1board here...

 

[ozskier]

We need Russ or Skip to post in here.
After my last post, I don't think I have time to post about wet bulb. Do a google search, I remember seeing a few websites that explained it fairly well. I think one of them even had a calculator.