#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.

Well, Okay then! You’ve twisted my arm, now I have to monologue for hours about my millions of ideas. I hope your happy. ;)

So I basically thought, “Huh, ice is pretty cool in real life, I should use some of that cool stuff” and came up with this. Also, a bit of a spoiler, but my Ice emperor is a lot more...evil...than the show’s. You see, I don’t have to worry about keeping it okay for ten year old’s, and if any of you are really ten, then...Opps. 

All of my sciency source stuff is from Wikipedia.

Ability 1: Needle Ice 

Science: Needle-shaped column of ice formed by groundwater. Needle ice forms when the temperature of the soil is above 32 °F and the surface temperature of the air is below 32 °F. Liquid water underground rises to the surface by capillary action, and then freezes and contributes to a growing needle-like ice column.

Story: IE uses them to impale troublesome enemies, though only as a last resort, as well as using them as long distance projectiles. Fields of needle ice can be found on battlegrounds.

Ability 2: Dry Ice 

I know it’s not real ice just bear with me

Science: Solid form of CO2. Dry ice sublimates at −109.3 °F at Earth atmospheric pressures. This extreme cold makes the solid dangerous to handle without protection due to burns caused by freezing (frostbite). While generally not very toxic, the outgassing from it can cause hypercapnia (abnormally elevated carbon dioxide levels in the blood) due to buildup in confined locations.

Story: The IC’s palace’s walls are made of Dry Ice bricks, that burns anyone who touches it. This creates a heavy fog of burning gas (Think breathing through your nose in -50 degree whether) around the palace, making it hard to see. Small veins of dry ice can also be mined from rocks, and when handled correctly, can be made into good weapons. 

Ability 3: Frost Flowers

Science:  ice crystals commonly found growing on young sea ice and thin lake ice in cold, calm conditions. The ice crystals are similar to frost, and are commonly seen to grow in patches around 3–4 cm in diameter. Frost flowers growing on sea ice have extremely high salinities and concentrations of other sea water chemicals and, because of their high surface area, are efficient releasers of these chemicals into the atmosphere.

Story: These are the main sources of decoration in the Subglacial City (the only place where people can still live, it’s underground), and are mostly harmless when small. The larger they get, however, the more delicate they are and more prone to collapsing upon innocent bystanders for no reason. They can range from 4 cm (when they form naturally) to fifty feet tall (When IE makes them). A field of Giant Frost Flowers and Needle Ice surrounds the Ice palace. 

Idk why the pic is so huge.

Ability 4: Snow rollers

Science: a rare meteorological phenomenon in which large snowballs are formed naturally as chunks of snow are blown along the ground by wind, picking up material along the way, in much the same way that the large snowballs used in snowmen are made. They can be as small as a tennis ball, but they can also be bigger than a car. Most snow rollers are a few inches/centimeters wide.

Story: IE uses these as weapons, throwing them at his enemies to crush them from afar. This is how he effectively wiped out most of the Never Realm’s civilizations, by pelting them with snow rollers until they were completely buried.

Ability 5: Brinicle

Science: a downward-growing hollow tube of ice enclosing a plume of descending brine that is formed beneath developing sea ice. As seawater freezes in the polar oceans, salt brine concentrates are expelled from the sea ice, creating a downward flow of dense, extremely cold and saline water with a lower freezing point than the surrounding water. When this plume comes into contact with the neighboring ocean water, its extremely cold temperature causes ice to instantly form around the flow. This creates a hollow stalactite, or icicle, referred to as a brinicle.

Story: When he was still taking over, many of the cities thought that attacking from under the water would be a good idea. Thus, the brinacles were created. One touch from these can give you salt poisoning if you’re lucky, frostbite if you’re not. These are still littering almost every body of water in the Never Realm, and the fish have long since learned to swim around them.

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