Southern Downs gets its first taste of 'snow'
SOUTHERN Downs Councillor Vic Pennisi isn't one to wait around for snow; he'd rather just make it himself.
The Stanthorpe resident used a 'snow gun' to blast his backyard with a thick blanket of "fluffy snow".
"There were places where it was 50cm, sometimes 100cm thick," Mr Pennisi said.
"There would have been enough to make a snow man."
Playing weathergod was no easy feat, Mr Pennisi using a 'snow gun' built from a compressor, pressure pump and snow nozel.
"I borrowed it from a local, but the problem is where he is, the temperature doesn't get right because he's at higher altitude," Mr Pennisi said.
"It has to get to -3 for the snow to form."
Setting it up was an early morning operation, taking four hours for a layer of snow to eventually appear.
"I realised at 12.30 Saturday night we had a frost outside," Mr Pennisi said.
"Then I set the machine up, got it all ready to rock and roll, tested it and then waited and waited till the temperature was right and it was just amazing.
"You go from squirting out atomised water, to a mist to snow flakes."
There is no use heading to Mr Pennisi's yard today to check out the snow.
"This morning there would have only been enough to fill a couple of buckets," he said.
