Snow Donuts - A Natural Weather Phenomena
January 31st, 2008Here’s a neat little natural weather phenomenon discovered along the lakefront in Ajax, Ontario last week:
Notice the snowballs, and no footprints around them! Some even are donut-shaped … only in Canada.
Essentially, I don’t know what the phenomenon is called, but have heard it explained before.
Conditions must be just perfect … specifically:
The result … these naturally rolled snowballs. When the wind is strong or fast enough, it will even create the donuts you see in the pictures.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I’m not sure how this works; but thanks for putting it up, I’ve never seen anything like this before!
January 31st, 2008 at 8:42 pm
I’ve heard them called snow rollers.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:41 pm
We had this same thing happen where I live in Illinois a few years ago. They are called snowrollers. I took a lot of pictures of them. They are rare and definitely made the news.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:31 am
Fascinating. Makes me think of those stones on almost-dry seasonal mud flats in Death Valley; the wind pushes them under the right conditions. All kinds of woo-woo explanations were put forth before the phenomenon was directly observed.
February 1st, 2008 at 8:12 am
I wish I could remember what these are called. I’ve only seen these form once in my life. They occurred during an east wind in a field between our house and a neighbour’s barn. Very cool!
February 1st, 2008 at 9:16 am
We live in NE Wisconsin along Lake Michigan, and we had snow rollers here along the lake one year about 20 yrs. ago. Neat phenomenon.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:59 pm
So this is the Canadian winter version of crop circles? Very cool.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:07 pm
some of nature’s best
thanks,
rudy
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I’ve seen something like this but under the ice floating at different levels in the water, no picture only a memory at this point. Imagine your surprise after you have chopped that first hole in the ice and finding snowballs with a 2′ diameter.
February 3rd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
You’re all wrong, it’s Aliens dagnammit itellsya!
Surprised no-one’s said that they’re photoshopped yet…
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:29 am
Nice shots. It’s amazing how many natural phenomena you’ll find in different places. Thanks for sharing with us!
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:21 am
In december 1991 I observed such a phenomena in miniature in ice, on a 40 degree ice slope near the summit of Doldenhorn Mountain in Switzerland.
I remember the cristalclear iceballs being around 1 inch in diameter and lying in nice little groups on small horizontal icy patches.
It sadly was one of these no camera days.