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There they are, sitting on a plain. Evidently, wind conditions need to be just right, and the snow must be precisely the right consistency. I don’t think anyone has seen them form, but I suspect a small clump of snow gets picked up by the wind and rolls into a snowball. When it gets too big it collapses, starts rolling again, picks up more snow, collapses again, and eventually forms these long cylinders. It’s just a guess, but it seems logical. [UPDATE<\/strong>: several commenters have pointed out that the ball need not collapse to make a roller; I had supposed that happened to help spread the ball out horizontally. I stand corrected!]<\/em><\/p> Just how bizarre are these things? Here’s another picture:<\/p> If you look at the big one on the right, you can see how it looks like a piece of foam that’s been rolled up, a testament to how it formed. It like looking down the maw of the Doomsday Machine<\/a> from Star Trek. I would love<\/em> to see something like this as it happened. I’ve not seen anything like it in Boulder, but we’re getting plenty of snow here, and it’s plenty windy here so one day I hope to spot them. <\/p> I’m perpetually amazed at the imagination and creative power of nature. Snow rollers! Who knew?<\/p> Tip o’ the Frosty magic top hat to James Oberg<\/a> and my thanks to Tim Tevebaugh for sending me the pictures and giving me permission to post them.<\/em><\/p> I pay a lot of attention to weird things, and to weird weather. I thought I had heard it all: mammatus clouds, inversion layers, parhelic arcs. But I can still be surprised! For example, I would’ve sworn up and down … Continue reading ![\"snowrollers5\"](\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/7a538_snowrollers5.jpg\")
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