The night of February 11, 2003 there were strong winds (25-40 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph) after a significant accumulation (perhaps 4") of very light snow with temperatures not far below freezing. This combination of weather conditions allowed the formation of a quite rare phenomena, the snow roller. The snow is blown and simply rolls, not unlike making a snowman. Some of the rollers were hollow all the way through the center and others were solid. Below are pictures
of a few of these features.

Trails produced by rolling snow. A field of snow rollers west of Charleston, Illinois.
Close up of snow roller with snow burush for scale. Another close up of a the same snow roller, note the trail.
A large hollow snow roller. Another field of snow rollers


Here is a link to a page at Kansas State University documenting the occurrence of the phenomena
in 2002 near Fossil Lake, Kansas.


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