Snow Rollers!

Jaybird

Apprentice Goon

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• Feb 13, 2003

• #1

I witnessed a phenom that I have never seen before. Snow Rollers.

Apparently when there is a small amount of snow, like 2-3 inches, and it is of the right consistency, a high wind (30-40 mph) can create something called snow rollers. It's actually where high winds gets under the snow and causes it to roll itself up into little, what look like miniature hay bales of snow. You could tell where these things had rolled themselves for hundreds of yards, increasing in size as the went until they got too big for the wind to push. Quite amazing.

I was driving to Columbus Indiana from Louisville and in the fields next to the highway there were what looked like hundreds of white 5 gal buckets laying around. I couldn't figure out what in the heck this was. It was in every field for 50 miles.
According to our local weather service, snow rollers need precise conditions to occur and are very rare, for this part of the country anyway.

Anyone else ever seen this before?

 

Rooster

Today's Tom Sawyer

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• Feb 13, 2003

• #2

Never seen it....did you get pictures? :)

 

Jaybird

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I didn't, but the evening news had them on the TV. I'll look in the paper tonight for it, they may have photos.

 

Jaybird

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Snow rollers:

 

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Jaybird

Apprentice Goon

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another:  

 

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XRpredator

AssClown SuperPowers

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Aug 2, 2000

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• Feb 13, 2003

• #6

yeah, I'd see them all the time out plowing snow in the middle of the night, but none that big. Musta been quite gusty, eh?

man, I don't miss that!

 

slo' mo

slower than slow...

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are you sure those aren't space meteors Jaybird? You didn't check for peanuts did you? :)

 

Treejumper

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• Feb 13, 2003

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We get little ones out at the farm all the time. Sometimes they are even made out of hail bales! :)

 

High Lord Gomer

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Sep 26, 1999

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• Feb 13, 2003

• #9

What is this "snow" you guys are talking about?

Does it ever get in your way on the track?

 

Treejumper

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Originally posted by High Lord Gomer
Does it ever get in your way on the track?

Click to expand...

What??? There's a track under all that snow? Where's my shovel? :confused:

 

S

smb_racing

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• Feb 13, 2003

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This is the first year I've seen those as well, we had some wind one night (~40-50 mph) and the next morning they were all over the place.

 

Offroadr

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Jan 4, 2000

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• Feb 13, 2003

• #12

We had them this week here too.

A little background and some more pics:

Snowrollers are molded by strong, gusty surface winds. They look like a rolled-up carpet or small muff and are often hollow. They can be as small as a golf-ball or as large as a 30-gallon drum,.but usually snowrollers are about 10-12 inches in diameter and a foot wide.

Snowrollers appear in open fields under specific weather conditions, often present following the passage of a strong winter storm.

First, the ground surface must have an icy, crusty snow, on which new falling snow cannot stick.

On top of this, about an inch of loose, wet snow, the sticky kind that makes good snowballs, must accumulate. The optimum air temperature appears to be around freezing, from 28 to 34 F.

Finally, a gusty and strong wind, usually 25 mph or higher, is needed to build the snowroller.

Snowroller formation begins when the wind scoops chunks of snow out of the snowfield, they roll, bounce and tumble, like snowy tumbleweeds, downwind. Additional snow then adheres to this seed, and the snowroller grows until it finally becomes too large for the wind to push, leaving behind a characteristic track linking the snowroller's origin to its final resting spot.

Because snowrollers have not been widely reported in the past, many consider them a rare event. But across North America, their formation is likely frequent. In fact, a snow-covered field may sport hundreds of individual snowrollers seemingly waiting for someone to stack them up.

target=_blank>http://www.crh.noaa.gov/jkl/CPM/images/snowrollers.jpg

target=_blank>http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/dp_wdl/images/Image034.jpg

target=_blank>http://chill.colostate.edu/snowroll...1_snowroll3.jpg

 

 

H

Hucker

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• Feb 14, 2003

• #13

This was on the local news tonight....

 

Jaybird

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• Feb 14, 2003

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• #14

Originally posted by Offroadr
...or small muff and are often hollow.... 

Click to expand...

Quite rare indeed.

 

a454elk

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• Feb 14, 2003

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I ain't biting, sorry.:| You guys are full of it, no way no how am I falling for "snow rollers". Give me a break.:moon: :moon:

 

7

70 marlin

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• Feb 15, 2003

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I bet there a real suprise to hit with a snowmoblie @ about 80mph?

 

Treejumper

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• Feb 15, 2003

• #17

Look Elk, their growing! :laugh:

 

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