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A snow donut forms

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Ingredients for a Snow donut: Icy snow and really really cold temperatures. The wind must be just right. The wind is not too strong and not too light. This will make the snow roll down a hill. The snow will roll down in the shape of a donut. We can say that a Snow Donut looks just like Mother Nature is making a sushi roll.  She uses snow instead of rice! These are very rare!

Kindergarten Level Description

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This rare snow formation can only be caused by a number of specific weather conditions. These include: a thin layer of icy snow, precise winds that are not too forceful, and a temperature near 32 degrees F. In addition to this, as the wind blows, gravity takes into effect. The mass of snow is blown, and gathers more snow until it creates a hollow cylinder shape, which gives it the name Snow Donut. These formations can be as small as few inches or as tall as 26 inches.

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Weather is the combination of sunlight, wind, snow or rain, and temperature in a particular region at a particular time.

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K-ESS2-1
Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.

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From this video we hear the different shapes and sizes of these unique snow formations and see some more pictures of this phenomenon.

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The Science Behind Snow Rollers, Ice Circles and Other Winter Phenomena

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A meteorologist explains how bizarre snow and ice formations take shape—and where you’re most likely to see them

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This is the science behind snow rollers!!

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The Science behind the snow rollers or snow donuts......

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The Science behind the snow rollers or snow donuts......

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A specific combination of weather elements create what meteorologists call snow rollers - a phenomenon that Kent has already seen once this winter and could see again with the right conditions.

"Snow rollers are a funny, whimsical winter thing," geography department chair Tom Schmidlin said. "It's almost as if gnomes rolled them or something."

Schmidlin said in order for snow rollers to form, the balance of wet snow and high winds in a certain, constant direction must combine. The high winds pick up a surface layer of snow and roll it into a snowball-like formation. They are usually hollow in the center because the initial rollover is a hollow circle.

"We had about 6 inches of cold, powdery snow and overnight, the temperature went up," Schmidlin said. "Then the arctic front came through with winds up to 40 mph. Therefore, a perfect combination for snow rollers."

This phenomenon is not a new discovery. In Schmidlin's research, he found a series of accounts in "Weather Monthly," a national weather newsletter, dating back to December 1895.

"It says people noticed them by a railroad in Spokane, Washington," Schmidlin said. "That's the earliest account I could find, but I'm sure they've been around a long time."

One account of snow rollers in Montana in 1899 recorded in the "Weather Monthly" newsletter read, "High wind began blowing that caused the moist snow on the ground to form large snowballs until the fields and pastures had looked like Mother Nature had been amusing herself on a large scale."

Though they have been around a long time, Schmidlin said he has never known anyone that has seen them or seen them himself.

"I've never heard anyone state how often they occur," he said. "It seems to be a rare-enough event. In reading about it, they seem to happen in a pretty small area. But this time, they seem to be more widespread. I've heard about them being in [the] West Virginia and Columbus areas. It seems like a pretty big area had snow rollers."

Brian Ivey, senior journalism major and weather enthusiast, is excited that he got to see them in his lifetime.

"They are like little naturemade snowballs," Ivey said. "We had some right outside [Franklin Hall]. I think it's really cool because of how rare it is and all the different factors going into making them. They varied in sizes and they were all over Ohio. It's really cool to think that no one has seen them before, even people who are 40 or 50 years old."

According to Schmidlin, this is the coldest winter the Kent area has experienced since 2009, with temperatures dropping into the negatives and a large amount of snowfall.
Contact Haley Baker at Hbaker18@kent.edu.

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A specific combination of weather elements create what meteorologists call snow rollers - a phenomenon that Kent has already seen once this winter and could see again with the right conditions. "Snow rollers are a funny, whimsical winter thing," geography department chair Tom Schmidlin said. "It's almost as if gnomes rolled them or something."

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Media Resource

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Here we can see the variety of size and shape this phenomenon can take.

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Snow roller is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which large cylinders of snow are naturally formed as chunks of snow are blown along the ground by wind, picking up material along the way, in much the same way that the large snowballs used in snowmen are made. But unlike snowballs made by people, snow rollers are typically cylindrical in shape, and are often hollow. The inner layers, which are the first layers to form, are weak and thin compared to the outer layers and can easily be blown away, leaving what looks like a doughnut or Swiss roll.

Snow rollers happen with the combination of lying snow and high wind speeds, mostly in North America and Northern Europe, and they can be as small as a tennis ball or they can be as large as two feet across - depending on how strong the wind is and how smooth the surface of the snow is. Gravity can also assist snow roller formation. An inclined surface often needs just a little shove from the wind to get snow rollers in motion.
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Frank Barrow, a lecturer in meteorology at the Met Office, described the exact science behind the formations.

They start off with a nice thick layer of snow, with the top snow just on the point of melting either because of general temperature or sunshine on the surface. The top snow layer becomes a bit sticky and you then need a fairly strong wind. The sticky layer can be peeled off the colder and more powdery snow underneath by the wind, forming a roll.

The rolls are not hollow to begin with, as a number of layers build up as the roll gets larger the further it is blown. However, the inner layers are weaker as they are formed first and are easily blown away. Eventually the rolls become too big to be blown any further or come to rest against vegetation or at the bottom of a hill.

Also see: Penitentes: Peculiar Spikey Snow Formation in the Andes
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Snow Roller: A Strange Meteorological Phenomenon

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Snow roller is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which large cylinders of snow are naturally formed as chunks of snow are blown along the ground by wind, picking up material along the way, in much the same way that the large snowballs used in snowmen are made.

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Communication with expert Chris Zieminski a Science Educator. 