[Geysers] Mysterious snow shapes - snow rolls

[Lisa R. Fisher]

You are looking at "Snow Rolls". They are quite common in the  
mountains, and can form in a variety of sizes. When I get a chance  
I'll dig out some of my old slides with photos of some amazing ones  
from the road by the Gros Ventre Slide, and some near my old home.  
I've seen some that are fairly narrow (only a few inches) with a huge  
diameter (>2' across), I've seen wide ones, small ones, etc. They are  
not always hollow either - sometimes they have a nucleus of a "natural  
snowball", other times they nucleate on rocks or other ground objects.  
Sometimes they stand like wheels, other times they fall over.

They require a specific set of conditions to form. For what looks like  
a good discussion of these, go to:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/events/roller/roller.php

Lisa Fisher
-- 
Lisa R. Fisher
Colorado School of Mines
Department of Geology and Geological Engineering
Golden, CO 80401
home 303-274-0998
cell 303-478-9427
lfisher at mines.edu


Quoting Janet Chapple <jochapple at earthlink.net>:

> That's an interesting picture, and, if those cylinders were caused by
> wind blowing snow in one steady direction to make them, and if they
> then turned over onto one flat side, the result of those actions would
> be what I and some others saw on the Webcam. Maybe when the present new
> foot or so of new snow melts, we'll see this phenomenon again.
>
> Janet
> ---------
>
> On Mar 30, 2008, at 5:34 PM, David Crotty wrote:
>
>> Since we don't have pictures of the ones you saw, I found a photo   
>> of some on the web. My brother in law showed us some from Northern   
>> KY a few years ago but I have lost the images. The photo attached   
>> here is not quite as dramatic as the ones he sent.  His were hollow  
>>  tubes really. Is this what we are talking about?
>> Dave Croty
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: David Crotty <decrotty at yahoo.com>
>> To: Geyser Observation Reports <geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu>
>> Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 3:29:37 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Geysers] Mysterious snow shapes
>>
>> I have not seen the ones you are mentioning but it is possible for   
>> the wind to make weird tubes out of the snow as well as snowballs.   
>>  My brother-in-law sent us pictures on them a few years ago that   
>> showed up in the lawn at his workplace.  I have them somewhere. If   
>> I find them I'll pass a few on.
>> Dave Crotty
>>
>>
>>> To: geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
>>> From: jochapple at earthlink.net
>>> Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:52:12 -0700
>>> Subject: [Geysers] Mysterious snow shapes
>>>
>>> Can anyone explain the several fairly large snowballs or flattened
>>> cylinders that appear on the OFG webcam these days? I've only noticed
>>> them in recent days and wonder how they got there or what the mechanism
>>> is that made them (like, humans or ??).
>>>
>>> Janet Chapple
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Geysers mailing list
>>> Geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
>>> 
>>
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>> rolls.jpg>_______________________________________________
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