The 40th annual Illinois Snow Sculpting Competition is underway, but participants are up against some not-so-favorable conditions.
The competition is taking place at Sinnissippi Park in Rockford. It began Wednesday, and since then, temperatures have been warmer than it has been in previous weeks.
Danica Rogers is working on her rendition of the Witch-king from the "Lord of the Rings." She said the warm weather makes it easier to move the snow, but that isn’t always good.
"Some of the snow, you don't want it to move when you hit it," she explained, "and it just crumbles and flakes off when it's warm. And we're dealing with the melting and then being on the blacktop, like water coming in from the bottom of the sculpture. So, we've tried to put a snow area around to kind of handle that."
Kellie Olivencia, the event coordinator, said it's too warm for optimal results.
"Saturday, the high is 54 degrees," she said. "That's just not favorable to snow. Ideally, you know, 30s would be okay, 20s would be even better to not only sculpt the snow, but to get the crispness in the detail of the pieces."
Participants are working from morning until night to get their creations done.
Judging will take place on Saturday, Feb. 14. The winners will be announced at the 1 p.m. awards ceremony.
Copy Edited by Eryn Lent