Snow Rollers

by Karen Adams

Title

Snow Rollers

Artist

Karen Adams

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

I went outside today with my dog and was surprised to see these snow shapes along one part of our yard. It looked like someone had been out playing in our yard building a snowman, but there were no footprints (other than the wild creatures paths.) Just last night on the news I had heard about a strange occurrence in nature and now I was actually looking at several of them in my own yard!
Snow Rollers, also called Snow Donuts or Snow Wheels, are an extremely rare natural phenomenon. They are formed naturally as chunks of snow get blown along the ground by wind. As they roll, they pick up dirt and grass just like a snowball as you roll it along. If you want to make a snowman, though, you have to carefully roll the snow to make it into a ball shape. The wind blows the snow into cylinder shapes which many times are hollow, thus giving the name Snow Donuts.
They are extremely unusual because several conditions have to be in place for them to occur:
1. The ground must be covered by a layer of ice. This means the snow won't stick to the ground
2. That ice must be covered with snow that is wet enough to stick together but light enough to be blown by the wind. Temperatures need to be near the melting point of snow
3. The wind must be strong enough to blow the snow, but not too strong that it blows the cylinders apart!
Sometimes gravity works instead of the wind when snow is on a hill and just heads downhill!

I have never seen a Snow Roller before in my life! It is a rare phenomenon of nature, or it could be my dad playing in the snow. I like to think that is what it is!

Uploaded

January 27th, 2014

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Viewed 900 Times  -  Last Visitor from Cambridge, MA on 04/26/2024 at 7:26 AM

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