{"id":113873,"date":"2026-02-14T11:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T11:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/113873\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T11:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T11:14:07","slug":"pa-snow-melt-competition-west-chesters-snowmelt-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/113873\/","title":{"rendered":"PA snow melt competition: West Chester\u2019s Snowmelt Derby"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like watching paint dry, only colder.\n<\/p>\n

For more than a decade, dozens of people have tracked the slow retreat of snow across Bob Mina\u2019s backyard in West Chester, Pennsylvania.\n<\/p>\n

Each minute that the icy crystals persist against the sun, warming air or rain could mean the difference between eternal bragging rights and a batch of homemade cookies \u2014\u00a0 or stinging defeat.\n <\/p>\n

The game is called Snowmelt Derby. Mina, an information technology professional, runs it each winter among his friends on Facebook, who guess when the last snow in his yard will melt for the season.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s mindless. It\u2019s pointless. It involves no skills,\u201d Mina said. \u201cIt\u2019s just fun. And by the time it\u2019s over, we\u2019re almost to spring. It\u2019s the ultimate timekiller.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

More than 100 players, some as far away as Australia, England and Canada, are currently waiting to see whether this weekend\u2019s warm weather will wipe away several inches of snow blanketing Mina\u2019s backyard.\n<\/p>\n

How Snowmelt Derby works<\/p>\n

The rules of Snowmelt Derby are simple: when snow falls in Bob Mina\u2019s backyard, he posts about it on Facebook. His friends tell him the date and time they think all of the snow will disappear. The closest person, without the snow lasting longer than their guess, wins.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you say the snow is going to last until Feb, 15 at 12:04 p.m., you\u2019re on the clock until 12:04 p.m.,\u201d Mina said. \u201cAt 12:05, your time is past. You\u2019re off. Whoever is next in line takes over.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Mina keeps a spreadsheet of all of the guesses. This year, they stretch until July 4. Mina posts regular photo updates on Facebook, tagging contestants as their times approach, and they\u2019re knocked out of the game.
\n\"ScreenshotsScreenshots from Bob Mina\u2019s facebook page on the snowmelt derby. (Sophia Schmidt\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Mina only counts \u201cnatural\u201d snow accumulation. He avoids walking on the fallen snow in his backyard for the duration of the game, and does not count any piles from plowing or shovelling.\n<\/p>\n

Mina\u2019s backyard gets very little sun due to a row of pines and other trees along the southern and western edges. This means snow can hang on surprisingly long, he said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like it\u2019s going to last forever,\u201d Mina said, surveying a thick layer of snow Thursday. \u201cIt always does, but there have been plenty of times where one warm-up, one heavy rainstorm can wipe out 90% of it, and suddenly you\u2019re playing for that last little bit in the garden, in the flower pots, in the shadows.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The competition doesn\u2019t end until the last crystals of snow have liquified.
\n\"BobBob Mina points to a tiny patch of snow clinging on at the end of a prior year\u2019s game. (Sophia Schmidt\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to get out there with my cell phone and sometimes zoom in and go, \u2018Yep \u2026 there\u2019s snow between those blades of grass,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

The winner of Snowmelt Derby gets a batch of homemade Toll House cookies delivered or mailed to them.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1557,1591,28,30,29,14834,1558],"class_list":{"0":"post-113873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-chester-county","9":"tag-facebook","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","12":"tag-pennsylvania-news","13":"tag-snow","14":"tag-west-chester"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}