BOONE, Iowa – The plume of water vapor is visible for miles when the 18 snowmakers at Seven Oaks Recreation are cranked up. Joel Bryan and his crew work through the night getting snow on the slopes and runs west of Boone knowing the forecast isn’t going to be snow-friendly, maybe until after Christmas.
Bryan says each of the machines is putting 80 to 100 gallons of water, in the form of a fine mist, into the frigid air every minute. That mist freezes and falls as snow, snow that thousands of people plan to ski and slide on in the coming days and weeks. When the temperature gets above freezing the machines are shut down until temps fall below freezing again.
