#snow rollers

3/19/22

snow rollers

World Atlas

also known as “snow donuts”, “snow bales”, and “wind snowballs”, snow rollers form when wind pushes chunks of snow along the ground, picking up more snow on the way to end up as cylinders

because the inner layers are thinner and weaker the wind will often punch them out, leaving a hollow center & more donut-like appearance (great, now I’m thinking of delicious glazed donut holes…)

Flickr, Washington State Department of Transportation

most snow rollers are on the smaller side, from a few centimeters to inches wide, but some become as big as you!

these donuts are usually found around hilly areas, due to one condition of formation being gravity pulling a snowball downhill — they can be found elsewhere if the wind is just strong enough, but not too strong, to push snow along. and then the snowy conditions have to be just right, otherwise creation is doomed from the get-go

it’s because of the highly-dependent nature of their creation that snow rollers are a meteorological rarity

Snowroller in front of the Pavilion Hotel, circa 1890s (PWG13)

Large snowroller with a six-horse team in front of the Pavilion Hotel, Montpelier, Vermont, 1890s. The men driving the horses are Edward Witham (left), who worked for the city of Montpelier from 1917-1930, and Colin C. Roberts (right), Montpelier Superintendent of Streets, whose name appears on the horse equipment.

Snow rollers

When the winds are strong enough and the white stuff is of the appropriate kind, these rolls can result as layers of snow are lifted and rolled into uncanny shapes picking up more snow as they go along. These cylinders take various shapes, and can form in large fields, ranging in size from tennis ball to car. They are often hollow and shaped like a Swiss Roll, as the thinner (and earlier) inner layers are blown away by the winds. The layer of snow needs to be thin, wet and loose, at a temperature close to melting point and above a surface to which it does not stick (eg ice). The wind needs to be just right, too weak the snow will stay in place, too strong it will be blown apart. Sometimes gravity assists them on their way after they start, so they can roll downhill like the proverbial cartoon snowball, and are often found in rugged regions.

Loz

Holy Rollers

My friends back in the mid-west are going for drives along frozen ponds and out country roads…