QUICKSAND BY THE NUMBERS » SNOW MEN
122
Size, in feet, for the largest snowman (or snowwoman, in this case) ever built, in 2008, just a few feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty. Named Olympia, after the senior Senator from Maine at the time Olympia Snowe, the enormous figure towered over the town of Bethel, Maine and boasted two wreaths for her eyes, five red car tires for her lips, two 27-foot trees for her arms and a 100-foot long scarf. It took 13 million pounds of snow to make her.
1,585
The record number of snowmen built in one hour, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The event took place in Japan in 2015 with 600 participants making each snowman at least 3 feet high. Japan also holds the record for most snowmen built at one time. In 2003, the residents of Sapporo, Japan, built 12,379 snowmen and placed a candle in each one's belly for a spectacular nighttime display.
238
The number of calories you can burn by building a snowman in an hour. It adds up to more burned calories than dancing and nearly as many as an hour-long bike ride.
6 | SAND& PINE MAGAZINE December 2021/January 2022
1818
The year residents of Zurich, Switzerland began blowing up a snowman to signal the start of spring. In their own version of Groundhog Day, on the third Monday of April, a snowman named Böögg, made of cotton and hay, is stuffed with dynamite, paraded through town and then placed on a 400-foot pile of scrap wood. The bells of the Church of St. Peter chime six times, representing the passing of winter, and then a pyre is lit under the snowman and people wait for the explosives to go off. According to legend, the shorter the combustion, the longer summer will be. Takes seeing a groundhog's shadow to a whole new level!
30
The optimal temperature, in Fahrenheit, to make a snowman. It's at this temperature that snow has moisture but is still soft enough to shape and mold. Any colder and the snow will be too powdery to form correctly.
10K
The average number of snowflakes needed to make a standard sized snowman. The world's smallest snowman, however, didn't need nearly as many. Standing just 3 micrometers tall (about .003mm), the little guy was carved with a scanning electron microscope and made out of silica, not snow. The nose and arms were made out of tiny pieces of platinum.
