Sochi, Russia, the host city of next month’s Winter Olympics, is nothing close to cold right now. The temperature hovers at a very mild 13C, which means it’s very far from freezing, which means it’s very far from snowing. But. Like. Um. You kind of need snow to host a Winter Olympics. So Sochi enlisted the help of snow machines to get man made snow spewed for the games.
Snow machines have always been used for the Olympics so it’s nothing especially new to see. What’s fascinating though is seeing SMI Snow Makers, the weather gods behind the man made snow, talk to National Geographic about the entire process of making snow, where they’re pulling in their water source, what type of pressure is necessary how good of a quality their snow product is (equivalent to two week old natural snow) and just seeing the snow machines blow. It’s a lovely haze.