Frying a turkey while snowing

Question

Light snow is in the forecast for Thanksgiving. I plan on deep frying the turkey.

I have deep fried turkey before. I know what to do and what not to do: I wear layers of clothing, goggles, lower/raise the turkey slowly, and have two people nearby to assist in case of emergency (at least one with a cell phone). I have a "little" deep fryer I use indoors as well. So I am not a newbie to frying. While writing up this question, Stackexchange recommended this question which I read:

How do I safely deep fry a turkey?

Still, I don't have a good answer to the question: how do I deep fry with a steady supply of frozen ice crystals slowly meandering down from the overhead clouds into my driveway? Sure, I can turn the burner off while I am lowering/raising the turkey. That removes some risk. But at some point the oil will be hot enough to flash boil water/snow while it is snowing.

Keep in mind this should be very light snow. It is not a blizzard. It is not a thunderstorm. Is the risk of flash boiling snow to the point of causing fire and injury too great? Is there a way to mitigate this risk?

One idea I had while brainstorming is to put up a collapsible gazebo over the fryer -- but that could be comically fatal for other reasons than snow.

Answer 1

There's so much heat around a turkey deep-fryer I wouldn't see how light or medium snow would affect your cooking. Any snow is going to melt and probably evaporate before it comes into contact with any hot oil, and any that makes contact will be gone in a flash. I've barbequed in 20 below and in snow, all that it really means is that you need more heat.

My main concern would be wind, not snow. Wind will blow much of your heat away, and a really stiff wind could blow the whole rig over which would ruin your day. You want to set up the frying rig in a spot that is out of the wind. Light and medium snow really isn't an issue.