The creation of anthropomorphic sculptures formed from atmospheric water vapour frozen into ice crystals – more commonly known as a snowmen – is a popular pastime during the winter months... if it snows. Your typical snowman is made from two or three large snowballs, with sticks, pieces of coal, vegetables, and items of clothing being added to help create the illusion that they are in fact people.
There are documented records of snowmen being built since Medieval times – the earliest being an illustration in the margin of one of the pages of the 1380 Book of Hours, that resides in Koninklijke Bibliotheek, in The Hague – but it is likely that the practice dates back to the Neolithic period. After all, the representation of the human form, in no matter what medium, is as old as human beings themselves. Since Neolithic peoples painted the inside of caves with scenes of hunts, as well as those of everyday life, and stone age artists carved sculptures of the Earth Goddesses from the material that gave them their name, why wouldn’t they also have used snow to create effigies of the human form (when the weather conditions permitted)?
As snow can be sculpted without the need for tools, it would have been a very appealing material to work in. Ice-age man sought to create images of the idealised human form, which for him meant the maternal, female form – the voluptuous, well-endowed shape of Mother Earth herself. So it is highly likely that the snow sculptures we describe as snowmen actually started out as snowwomen. (It’s uncertain when snowballs were introduced.)
25,000 years later, and we’re still building human figures out of snow, but only if the snow is of the right consistency. As it approaches its melting point snow becomes moist and is more easily compacted, allowing for the construction of large snowballs simply by rolling. Powdered snow will not stick to itself and so is not an ideal building material for snowmen. The best time to build a snowman is the next warm afternoon following a heavy snowfall.
The snowman doubtless became a part of the Christmas festivities, not just because of the wintery time of year at which those celebrations took place, but as part of Christianity’s mass assimilation of seasonal pagan practices, such as the Christmas tree and Father Christmas.
Did you know that it can actually get so cold that it doesn't snow? Because snow is frozen water, if there are not enough water droplets in the air it can't snow - simple as that. As a result, the driest place on Earth isn't in the Sahara Desert or the Arizona Desert. It's actually a place known as the Dry Valleys and it's in Antarctica. The area is completely free of ice and snow, and it never rains there at all! In fact, parts of the Antarctic continent haven't seen any rain for around 2 million years! But Antarctica is also the wettest place in world, due to the fact that 70% of the Earth's water is found there in the form of ice.
Snowball Cocktail 2 oz Advocaat Top up Lemonade 1/2 oz Fresh Lime juice
Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker / stirrer and pour into an unusually shaped glass. Add Crushed Ice and decorations to create a great speciality drink from an easy to make recipe!
And while you're sipping your Snowball, why not listen to this ode to the cocktail, celebrating the fact that you can enjoy all your favourite drinks in the same glass?
The largest snowflake ever observed supposedly appeared on 28 January, 125 years ago, in Fort Keogh, Montana. It was reportedly 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick. However, this record seems to be based on the word of a ranch owner named Matt Coleman, who described the snowflake as “larger than milk pans” to the Monthly Weather Review journal.
This record seems a bit dubious, however, as the National Snow & Ice Data Center notes in its FAQ section regarding how big snowflakes can get:
“Snowflakes are agglomerates of many snow crystals. Most snowflakes are less than one-half inch across. Under certain conditions, usually requiring near-freezing temperatures, light winds, and unstable, convective atmospheric conditions, much larger and irregular flakes close to two inches across in the longest dimension can form. No routine measure of snowflake dimensions are taken, so the exact answer is not known.”
After such a mild autumn, here in the UK it's getting noticeably colder and I'm sure it won't be long before the temperature drops low enough for ice to start forming. But how much do you really know about ice?
Did you know...?
The average snowflake has a top speed of 1.7 metres per second.
For it to snow the tops of the clouds must be below zero degrees Celsius (or 32 degrees Fahrenheit).
The largest piece of ice to fall to earth was an ice block 6m (or 20ft) across that fell in Scotland on 13 August 1849.
The largest hailstone recorded fell on 14 April 1986 in Bangladesh weighing 1kg (2.25lbs). The hailstorm reportedly killed 92 people.
The largest snowflakes in the world fell across Fort Keogh in Montana (USA) on 28 January 1887.
Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is the only permanent snowcap within sight of the equator.
Permanent snow and ice cover about 12% (21 million square kilometres) of the Earth's land surface.
80% of the world's fresh water is locked up as ice or snow.
A single snowstorm can drop 40 million tons of snow, carrying the energy equivalent to 120 atom bombs.
There is not a law of nature that prohibits 2 snowflakes from being identical.
In Australia, snowfalls are common above 1,500m in the Alps during the winter, but there are no permanent snowfields anywhere on the continent.
The most snow produced in a single snowstorm is 4.8m (15.75ft) at Mt Shasta Ski Bowl, California (USA) between 13 and 19 February 1959.
At a thickness of two inches, ice will support a man. At a thickness of four inches, it will support man on horseback. At a thickness of six inches, it will support teams with moderate loads. At a thickness of eight inches, it will support heavy loads. At a thickness of ten inches, will support 1,000 pounds to the square foot.
Between 1400 and 1814 (which was the last time it happened) the River Thames froze over 26 times. And when it froze solid, Londoners made the most of it, holding Frost Fairs on the ice.
The tidal, somewhat salty Thames is a deep, fast-flowing river today, but before the Old London Bridge was demolished in 1831, the river’s waters were pooled slightly behind the medieval arches, which probably helped the ice take hold. It was also the time known as the Little Ice Age, when winters were colder and more severe than they have been since 1800.
An Exact and lively Mapp or Representation of Boothes and all the variety of Showes and Humours on the ICE of the River of THAMES by LONDON During that memorable Frost in the 35th yeare of the Reigne of his sacred Maj King Charles the 2nd
The embankments had not yet been built, either, and so the River Thames was wider, shallower, and probably a little slower moving.
The Thames froze several times in Tudor England. Henry VIII is known to have travelled from Whitehall to Greenwich by sleigh, along the River Thames, in 1536. In 1564, Elizabeth I practised her archery on the frozen Thames, whilst menfolk played football on the ice.It was said of this winter:
On the 21st of December, began a frost, which continued so extremely that on new year’s eve people went over and along the Thames on the ice from London Bridge to Westminster. Some played at the foot-ball as boldly there as if it had been on the dry land; diverse of the court shot daily at pricks set up on the Thames; and the people, both men and women, went on the Thames in greater numbers than in any street of the city of London. On the 31st day of January, at night, it began to thaw, and on the fifth day was no ice to be seen between London Bridge and Lambeth, which sudden thaw caused great floods and high waters, that bare down bridges and houses, and drowned many people.
The first frost fair, in terms of full-scale activity and commercial stalls and sports took place in 1608. It was a cheerful and spontaneous affair.
The Long Freeze or Great Freeze of 1683/4 was one of the coldest-known English, and European, winters. The Thames froze solidly, and the ice was up to a foot deep. The frost began six weeks before Christmas, and lasted well into February.
Streets of stalls and booths stretched from bank to bank; all London’s normal entertainments made their way on to the river. A whole ox was roasted at Hungerford Steps, bear-baiting and puppet-shows were held on the ice. Skating and chair-pushing events were also set up.
A pamphlet published about the Long Frost included this passage: A whole street of booths, contiguous to each other, was built from the Temple Stairs to the barge-house in Southwark, which were inhabited by traders of all sorts, which usually frequent fairs and markets, as those who deal in earthenwares, brass, copper, tin, and iron, toys and trifles; and besides these, printers, bakers, cooks, butchers, barbers, coffee-men, and others, who were so frequented by the innumerable concourse of all degrees and qualities, that, by their own confession, they never met elsewhere the same advantages, every one being willing to say they did lay out such and such money on the river of Thames.
The Great Frost of 1709, probably Europe’s coldest winter for 500 years, saw another large-scale frost fair. Not only rivers but huge chunks of the North Sea froze during the terrible cold of the winter, and in France, an estimated 500,000 people died of starvation and malnutrition later in the year. A London paper said:
The Thames seems now a solid rock of ice; and booths for sale of brandy, wine, ale, and other exhilarating liquors, have been for some time fixed thereon; but now it is in a manner like a town; thousands of people cross it, and with wonder view the mountainous heaps of water that now lie congealed into ice.
On Thursday a great cook’s-shop was erected, and gentlemen went as frequently to dine there as at any ordinary. Over against Westminster, Whitehall, and Whitefriars, printing presses are kept on the ice.
The last proper freezing of the River Thames in London took place in 1814. The frost set in at the start of January, and by the end of the month, the River was frozen solid. An elephant was even led across the Thames by Blackfriars Bridge to demonstrate the safety of the ice!
Hordes of traders and entertainers rushed to set up shop, and the fair was in full-swing. It was shorter than many, as the solid ice lasted only a week. Writing 20 years later, Charles Mackay said of the 1814 fair:
Each day brought a fresh accession of pedlars to sell their wares, and the greatest rubbish of all sorts was raked up and sold at double and treble the original cost.
The watermen profited exceedingly, for each person paid a toll of twopence or threepence before he was admitted to the fair; and something also was expected for permission to return. Some of them were said to have taken as much as six pounds in a day.
Many persons remained on the ice till late at night, and the effect by moonlight was singularly novel and beautiful. The bosom of the Thames seemed to rival the frozen climes of the north.
Another cover of a Christmas classic... Grace Kelly-bothering falsetto cat-strangler Mika had recorded his own version of Let it Snow. You can listen to it here.
Following the spat of cold weather we've been having here in the UK, bookmakers have cut the odds on there being a White Christmas this year.
Forecasters have reported that temperatures could drop to as low as minus ten in parts of Scotland, and the cold spell could last for several days.
Jonathan Powell, a senior forecaster from Positive Weather Solutions, told the BBC their weather models suggest it will be a white Christmas for many.
Snowy scenes on Christmas cards suddenly seem more appropriate than ever before, there having been two white Christmases in the 20th Century in London - in 1938 and 1970. So why have we had more than a century of snowy scenes on Christmas cards? It’s thanks to the Victorians.
To help prepare you psychologically for being snowed in this Christmas, here's a Christmas classic from Bing Crosby and the gang.
I dropped my daughter off at school today to be told that the precipitation of crystalline water ice that has fallen in the night is perfect for making snowmen.
So, meet Angus.
He was built in the western Maine town of Bethel ten years ago, and when this photo was taken he was the tallest snowman in the world.
Angus, King of the Mountain, stood 113 feet, 7 inches tall. He weighed 9,000,000 lbs, was made up of 200,000 cubic feet of snow, had 4 ft. wreathes for eyes, his carrot nose was made from 6 ft. of chicken wire & muslin, 6 automobile tires formed his mouth, with another 3 skidder tires for his buttons, he had a 20 ft. fleece hat, a 120 ft. fleece scarf and two 10 ft. trees for arms.
The photo above was taken on 19 February 1999. Angus didn't melt until 10 June 1999.
There are plenty more facts like this to be found in What is Myrrh Anyway? and Christmas Miscellany, both of which can be bought by clicking the appropriate link in the left-hand sidebar.
And in case you're planning on creating your own anthropomorphic snow sculpture later in the day, here's a little something to inspire you.
It's snowing outside my window! Yay! I'm almost as excited as my own kids about the white stuff, but then my commute to work involves walking from the kitchen to my desk in the corner of the sitting room. I empathise with those struggling to get to work, I really do. I used to do the same thing myself. But moving on...
Did you know, when your granny used to say "Ooh, it's too cold for snow!" she wasn't just passing on some old wives' tale, she was actually telling the truth? Because snow is frozen water, if there are not enough water droplets in the air it can't snow - simple as that. As a result, the driest place on Earth isn't in the Sahara Desert or the Arizona Desert. It's actually a place known as the Dry Valleys and it's in Antarctica. The area is completely free of ice and snow, and it never rains there at all! In fact, parts of the Antarctic continent haven't seen any rain for around 2 million years! But Antarctica is also the wettest place in world, due to the fact that 70% of the Earth's water is found there in the form of ice.
If you're feeling a little on the chilly side when you get in from work tonight, why not sit down in front of the fire tonight and enjoy a Snowball? Of the alcoholic variety...
Snowball Cocktail
2 oz Advocaat Top up Lemonade 1/2 oz Fresh Lime juice
Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker / stirrer and pour into an unusually shaped glass. Add Crushed Ice and decorations to create a great speciality drink from an easy to make recipe!
You'll find plenty more festive and seasonal recipes in What is Myrrh Anyway? and Christmas Miscellany. And if you feel that nothing but a hot toddy could warm you up in this weather, then you need to pick up a copy of my brand new Scottish Miscellany, available here.
Here's what people are saying about 'What is Myrrh Anyway?' by Jonathan Green
‘As welcome as a warm glass of mulled wine on a wintry night, Green’s guide to Christmas enhances the pleasures of the festive season, offering a witty cornucopia of Christmas facts and folklore.’ The Good Book Guide
‘An explanation of all things cultural, historical, scientific and musical relating to Christmas.’ Angel Magazine
‘Freaky but fascinating festive trivia’ Daily Star
I am a freelance writer and editor, well known for my contributions to the Fighting Fantasy range of adventure gamebooks. I have also written for such diverse properties as Sonic the Hedgehog, Doctor Who, Star Wars and Games Workshop's worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.
I am the creator of the alternative steampunk universe of Pax Britannia, and have written eight novels featuring the debonair dandy adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver.
As well as my fiction work, I have also written a number of non-fiction books including 'Match Wits with the Kids', 'What is Myrrh Anyway? Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas' and 'YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks'.
25,000 years later, and we’re still building human figures out of snow, but only if the snow is of the right consistency. As it approaches its melting point snow becomes moist and is more easily compacted, allowing for the construction of large snowballs simply by rolling. Powdered snow will not stick to itself and so is not an ideal building material for snowmen. The best time to build a snowman is the next warm afternoon following a heavy snowfall.
This record seems a bit dubious, however, as the National Snow & Ice Data Center notes in its FAQ section regarding how big snowflakes can get:
