Rare snow rollers spotted in field near Marlborough

Six rare "snow rollers" were spotted by Brian Bayliss in Wiltshire.

He said he spotted them in a field he owns and at first thought they had been manmade but there were no footprints.

"These are truly beautiful photos of a very rare meteorological phenomenon - called snow rollers or snow bales. Brian was very lucky to see these," Mr Fergusson said.

"Conditions have to be just right for snow rollers to occur: a smooth, un-vegetated hillside, such as in this case near Marlborough, enhances the chance of them being formed.

"A layer of thin snow, settled atop existing ice and not sticking to it, combined with specific temperature, moisture level and wind speed, are fundamental to the creation of these natural oddities."

Rare snow rollers spotted in field near Marlborough

I have never seen or heard of a "snow roller" before. Maybe they are called something else in the US. Nature sure is cool

We get them here on flat land when the winds are up.

Not as rare as the article might have the reader believe.

a reply to: TheTruthRocks

I agree, I've seen hundreds of these things in my lifetime, I've even seen them forming.

We used to make balls of snow when I was young when the snow was just right. Then we rolled the two foot balls down a big hill and watched them hit things, growing pretty big. I think that we probably were lucky we did not get caught, we had some steep roads we used to roll these down in town and I remember one getting about five feet tall and hitting the side of a car parked right next to a tavern. We did not stick around to see anything, eight year old kids can run like hell. We didn't do that there anymore because we were scared that we would get caught. The cops were there about an hour later but could not track us because we ran down the other road, they could not find out where we went.

Smallfoot is who makes those. Naturally Bigfoot always gets all the jazz, but Smallfoot like to roll snow and baffle us.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Isn't that what Aliens do when they have no crops to play with ?

That's a cool phenomenon that is new to me too , wonder how quickly (or slowly) the rollers roll.

Good video of rollers forming in outside the Supreme Court in Ottawa...

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Okay that's impressive. I've never seen anything like that without it being done by a person or bug or something. Pretty cool thing to share, thanks never seen it before.

a reply to: Murgatroid

Very cool, thanks for posting the video

You can see how one would grow in size fast if it had a hill to roll down.

I find the shape crazy. The inside is almost hollow and looks like cotton, then it tapers outward with each layer.

Awesome like a possum




Edit... The picture angle makes it look like it's tractor tire sized.

It looks like they are pretty small. Still cool though.

A snow roller is a lot like how alcohol forms when brewing beer: it's self-limiting.

When the rollers get too large and heavy to roll, they simply stop. If they're on a steep grade, they pick up too much speed and fly apart.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

What's the bet there is a wee frozen solid hamster inside?

Very cool !! ( no pun intended ) .