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.
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| Trails produced by rolling snow. | A field of snow rollers west of Charleston, Illinois. |
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| Close up of snow roller with snow burush for scale. | Another close up of a the same snow roller, note the trail. |
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| 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.
Go to my home page.