Something I've never heard of before

gkainz

gkainz

Final Approach
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Greg Kainz
Snow rollers ... never heard of these before!


On the evening of March 31st, 2009, Tim Tevebaugh was driving home from work east of Craigmont in the southern Idaho Panhandle. Across the rolling hay fields, Tim saw a very usual phenonmena. The snow rollers that he took pictures of are extremely rare because of the unique combination of snow, wind, temperature and moisture needed to create them. They form with light but sticky snow and strong (but not too strong) winds. These snow rollers formed during the day as they weren't present in the morning on Tim's drive to work.

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/otx/photo_gallery/snow_rollers.php
 
Wow, cool pictures. A time lapse video of those being formed would have been very cool.
 
They need to change the name to "Snow Bails"

That's pretty cool.
 
First crop circles, now this.

Crazy aliens!!!
 
I have seen pics of those before.

Imagine the winds it takes to make enough Bernoulli effect lift to make the snow lift in sheets.
 
mikea said:
I have seen pics of those before.

Imagine the winds it takes to make enough Bernoulli effect lift to make the snow lift in sheets.
Click to expand...
Perhaps you assume the wind was from 180 degrees of the snow roller path of travel. Coanda effect?
 
Richard said:
Perhaps you assume the wind was from 180 degrees of the snow roller path of travel. Coanda effect?
Click to expand...

Dunno. Do they have a mechanism for how it happens? I was thinking the rolls go downwind.
 
gkainz said:
Snow rollers ... never heard of these before!


On the evening of March 31st, 2009, Tim Tevebaugh was driving home from work east of Craigmont in the southern Idaho Panhandle. Across the rolling hay fields, Tim saw a very usual phenonmena. The snow rollers that he took pictures of are extremely rare because of the unique combination of snow, wind, temperature and moisture needed to create them. They form with light but sticky snow and strong (but not too strong) winds. These snow rollers formed during the day as they weren't present in the morning on Tim's drive to work.

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/otx/photo_gallery/snow_rollers.php
Click to expand...

Cool formations.

While ski mountaineering in high alpine terrain we commonly see and sometimes have to evade while they're rolling, a variant of those snow rollers out here that's much larger, forming in packable "snowball making" type snow, on moderatly steep slopes. The snow rolls are higher than wide, about the scale of a cinnamon roll, only they can be 8 feet high by 4 feet wide and weigh who knows how much with the wet snow, 500 pounds or more?

If they don't hit something, they'll either fragment from their own flaws and weight, or they will fall over onto one side or the other and stop. I have a theory that with all other factors being equal, the earth's rotation will affect their falling to the left or right, with the opposite sides of falling to in the northern and southern hemispheres, just like whirlpools spin opposite.
 
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