How to: build the perfect snow fort

When your family is snowed in, help your kids find shelter from the storm in a snow cave. To make the winter hideaway, all you need is snow, snow and even more snow.

First, shovel snow into one big pile and pack it down by stepping, jumping or even rolling over it (this is fun). If it is very cold and the snow does not pack well, leave the pile for a day to harden.

Once a solid, a round pile has been made a little wider than it is tall, dig a doorway at ground level. Continue tunneling through the entryway into the pile, shoveling the snow onto the top of the cave and packing it down. When the space is big enough for you or your child to crawl inside, use a smaller shovel to dig snow out of the center, all the way down to the ground. Stop digging when the cave feels big enough; the walls must be at least a foot thick.

Set up camp by covering the floor with a straw mat or an old blanket. The kids can poke air holes in the ceiling or dig out windows from the walls. Outside, they might build snow furniture and set a bandanna flag on the cave top. If properly made, the structure will be sturdy, but it's always good idea to keep an eye on your cave kids.

Now, you're ready for a snow fight - HAVE FUN!

Snow Talks to Itself?

Did you know people theorize that snow talks to itself? Here, from Wikipedia: There are, broadly, two possible explanations for the symmetry of snowflakes. Firstly, there could be communication or information transfer between the arms, such that growth in each arm affects the growth in each other arm. Surface tension or phonons are among the ways that such communication could occur.

Don’t use the “B” word Lightly

A lot of people with negative thoughts and irrational feelings about Winter will rush to invoke the "B" word anytime the temperatures decline and a snowflake wafts to earth. Please, before you call a lovely and ordinary snow event a Blizzard, familiarize yourself with the term's definition. Blizzard isn't a word you want to toss around lightly. That kind of slanderous behavior damages the reputation of my client.

Again, courtesy of Wikipedia, here's the definition of a blizzard: …the winter storm must have winds of 40 km/h (25 mph) or more, have snow or blowing snow, visibility less than 1 km (about 5⁄8 mile), a wind chill of less than −25 °C (−13 °F), and that all of these conditions must last for 4 hours or more before the storm can be properly called a blizzard.