Sledding alert: City of Wichita is making it snow today

Despite what the weather forecast may tell you, Wichitans can look forward to a snow day — an artificial snow day, that is.

“We’ve been a little bit light on snow this year, so the opportunity to make snow is pretty exciting,” Director of Parks and Recreation Troy Houtman said.

The city will host this free “snow day” from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 2, at the Mid-America All Indian Center at 650 N. Seneca, provided conditions are cold enough.

Dunkin Donuts will provide free coffee and hot chocolate for attendees.

Houtman said the plan is to have a blanket of artificial snow cover the enclosed hill just outside the Indian Center for people to sled on and build snowmen.

The artificial snow in question will be provided by a local, family-run company: Snow Bros Snowmakers.

The snow-making company was started in 2017 by Toby Franke, his two sons Alex and Bear, and his father Fred Dopps.

Making snow is an intricate process that involves making a cloud of air and water droplets to create snowflakes, Franke said.

“Basically we use the same stuff that ski resorts use,” Franke said. “We’ve created a winter wonderland snow backup system, and I want to ensure kids have good memories of getting to play in the snow.”

But in order to make the snow, the weather must be at or colder than 27 degrees Fahrenheit.

Franke said he can’t yet be certain of the amount of snow he will be able to produce for Wednesday’s event because so much of it is dependent on weather, but currently the forecast is looking ideal.

“The beautiful thing is the weather forecast looks cold all night, so I’m going to work all night and we’re going to see what we come up with,” he said. “If the weather does change, and I can’t make a good product, then I’ll bump to a later date.”

Franke said he was inspired to pursue snowmaking after he noticed his son growing bored and becoming an “internet zombie” during the winter break from school without any snow to play in.

“My son initially asked me one day,” Franke said, “‘Dad, can you make a machine that makes snow?’”

Since then, Franke said he’s obtained over $12,000 worth of equipment to make large-scale snowmaking possible and has earned the nickname “Old Man Winter.”

Once he felt confident about his capabilities, Franke said, he reached out to several people about collaborating on a large-scale “snow day” event. About three weeks ago he got in contact with Houtman and the Parks and Recreation Department.

Franke and Houtman said, to their knowledge, this event will be the first time the city has ever experimented with artificial snow.

“I’ve made snow around 20 times so far, and each time I’m getting a little better. Now we’re going to work to make it available for all the kids in Wichita,” Franke said. “This is our first big run.”

If the event is a success, Houtman said Wichitans can expect more artificial snow days in the future.

“This is a good test point. This is a first time and we’ll evaluate and see how well it goes,” Houtman said.

This story was originally published December 28, 2018 at 5:00 AM.