No Snow? No Problem: Seattle Still Sets Record For Biggest Snowball Fight

Trucks brought in 162,000 pounds of snow from the mountains for a manmade snow day.

  • Share
  • Read Later

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd4R3RuDVBA]

The Pacific Northwest is known for a lot of things: Starbucks, Nirvana, the Space Needle. Some people might even say rain (though Seattleites only keep that rumor going so the rest of the world leaves us to drink our soy lattes in peace).

But snow? Not so much. Despite its high latitude, the Emerald City doesn’t usually get major snowfall, so naturally, it’s every kid’s oft-unfulfilled dream to make snow angels, hide in snow forts and do some damage in snowball fights.

It didn’t snow in Seattle on Saturday, as expected, but there was snow in a small corner of the city — enough to make a lot of kids’ dreams come true. Trucks hauled 34 loads of snow from Snoqualmie Pass, an hour away in Washington’s Cascade mountain range, to the Seattle Center. That’s more than 162,000 pounds of snow, creating a winter wonderland right outside the Experience Music Project museum and underneath the Space Needle.

(PHOTOS: Ice Sculptures Create a Real Winter Wonderland at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival)

The goal? To break the Guinness World Record for biggest snowball fight. Novices though Seattleites are when it comes to the snow, they succeeded, gatherine 5,834 people to participate and blasting the previous record, set in South Korea by 5,387 snow bunnies in 2010.

The manmade snow day, aptly named “Snow Day,” was also a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club. Companies paid for space to build their own snow forts, and some went all out: one made a snow slide, and more than one made toilets out of snow, warning kids Frank Zappa-style “don’t you eat that yellow snow.” But by all means — ball it up and throw it at your neighbor.