LEVELLAND — The recent cold spell that gripped the South Plains this week with frigid temperatures did not really bring any snow. But that didn't stop the City of Levelland from making its own.
For the third year, Levelland's Park Department is set to open its sled hill at Lobo Lake Park, featuring several feet of manufactured snow. Park Department staff have been out at the park around the clock the last few days creating the artificial winter landscape and preparing to welcome visitors when the hill opens Thursday afternoon.
Though it didn't fall from the sky, the snow is 100% real, said Dustin Reichelt, director of parks and cemetery for the City of Levelland.
"It's real snow. It's just water and air," Reichelt told the Avalanche-Journal, noting the same process is used at ski resorts to create snow when natural precipitation is not sufficient for good skiing.
Reichelt explained the process to make the snow as basically recreating natural atmospheric processes on the ground. Compressed air and high-pressure water are used to create snowflakes.
"There's no chemicals. There's nothing else to it. It's literally water and air," he said.
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The Park Department aims to create and open the sled hill several times each year, and Reichelt said he's received a lot of positive feedback from locals since the city first created the hill in 2021.
"It's been a really big, warm welcome," Reichelt said. "We've had a lot of very positive feedback from the local community. In fact, we have a lot of people here now that not only expect it, they make it a tradition to come out every year.
"It's something for the kids to do, but it's not just limited to kids. We have adults sled and grandparents sled, too."
Neither is the fun limited just to Levellanders.
"I had a lady from Midland call me this morning, asking about the hours and making sure we're going to be open. She's going to drive up here from Midland to (sled)," Reichelt said. "We want our locals to enjoy it of course, but it's just one more thing that attracts people to Levelland and puts us on the map."
The sled hill opens Thursday and Friday from 3 to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, and sleds are provided on a first-come, first-served basis. There's also an adjacent snowy area reserved for snowball fights and other wintry fun.
Reichelt said that even though temperatures are forecast to soar to nearly 70 degrees Thursday before cooling off again over the weekend, his crew made enough snow for the hill to remain sledable throughout the warm-up.
"It's fun seeing people sled in T-shirts and stuff when it's 60-70 degrees," he said.
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