[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74nrvnfOOjA]

Check out this magnificent snow sculpture, reported to be the largest ice/snow sculpture of Santa in the world.  The sculpture was created in Harbin China (where the temperatures can dip down as low as -35 degrees Celsius or -31 degrees Farenheit) to celebrate the city’s world-renowned ice festival.  The huge Santa is the star attraction of the festival, expected to draw over 800,000 visitors between mid-December and February.

There’s little question that this particular Santa is huge.  Just how huge is he?  Glad you asked!  Here’s the stats:

Height: 80 ft.

Length: 525 ft.

Now the question of weight.  The sculpture is estimated to contain over 13,000 cubic meters of snow.  This works out to about 459,091 cubic feet.

The weight of a cubic foot of snow varies widely depending on the water content of the snow.  According to the University of Arkansas paper, “Ice and Snow Accumulations on Roofs”

“The water content of snow may range from 3% for very dry snow to 33% for a wet, heavy snow to nearly 100% for ice.”

 

Our Santa ice sculpture is clearly closer to ice than dry snow, so let’s split the difference and say, conservatively, that the snow is 30% water.  That takes us to 137,727 cubic feet of water.  A cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 lbs.

Soooo.  Final weight stats:

Volume: 459,091 cubic ft. of snow containing 137, 727 cubic ft. water.

Weight: 1 cubic foot of water 62.4 lbs.

Weight of World’s Largest Santa Sculpture (est.) 8,594,185 lbs. (nearly 4300 tons)

Conclusion: The World’s Largest Santa Snow Sculpture weighs more than me.