They may look like winter’s answer to crop circles, but these mysterious snow rolls are in fact a rare natural phenomenon usually found only in the world’s most remote and frozen regions.
Also known as snowrollers, snow bales and snow doughnuts, they form mostly in unusual conditions created by a precise combination of snow, ice, wind, temperature and moisture on the prairies of North America.
But this week’s frozen weather has allowed the snow cylinders to make a freak appearance in the UK.
Telegraph (thanks, Tammy)
Awesome!
Self-rolling giant snowballs? Certainly a natural phenomenon, it’s called snow covered hay bales!
That’s got to be one hell of a snowball fight
That, is possibly the one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Pity I couldn’t actually *see* it.
Darn I saw the post on twitter and expected something akin to what you’d see in a Loony Tunes cartoon…
Andy, don’t ruin the joke for everyone else!
Wonder why they seem to have a hole in the middle? Strange.
LC x
These are real Andy, not hay bales. I’ve heard of them though never seen them myself. Here’s more info on how they occur:
http://www.weathernotebook.com/transcripts/2002/01/22.html
this looks like the moving stones of racetrack playa in death valley, which were attributed to wind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1hoiHvOeGc
I would not call them balls … but tubes .. they do not have the shape of a ball (which makes sense, would be pretty freaky if they did have that shape .. pretty weird winds must have been their then ….).
Lots of snow here too …. snow chasing on roads … cool sight but can be risky ofcourse.
The weater reports are pretty awesome nowadays too … they became desillusionated with normal reports and start to pimp things a bit too much … as if you’re listening to raving lunatics … (not really awesome but it might be helpfull for the numbed ones who don’t reason yet). Belgian now has an official cold wave I heard … my god .. cold wave?? Oh well .. belgians … (the dutch will get this ..)
Driving on country roads is kinda fun … getting more and more tempted to do some crazy driving there … (well, not at high speed ..)
Ok, but it could of been some bloke, got very drunk, got lost, found himself on top of a hill. He understood he wasnt going anywhere for the night, he got bored made a tonne of mini snowballs, he fell asleep and when he woke he walked down the hill looked about and went WOW look at that ,what amazing snowballs ive got a throw away camera. .lol. only joking. they look really good.
are you sure it is real?
Surely God must have rolled them. After all, they are perfectly cylindrical. Now we just need to figure out the purpose for which He intended them…
wow! proof of snowman abiogenesis!!!
someone get the top hats and complete the process!
“…and when we placed it on his head, he began to dance around\”
[will this be lost in translation?]
Nice close up of the “hay bale” in off this link: http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog/43652967.html
ive seen these by where i live i thaught they were made by people messing about
I wonder how on earth it becomes cylindrical?
Looks rather brilliant to be honest have never seen that before.
they are snow covered hay rolls der!!!!!!!!!!!!!
migh first thought was surely they are snow covered hay bales….my thought after reading remain the same!
Migh??? wtf lol My even!! dear god im losing meye mighnd lol
They look just like the hay stacks I feed my pets with, they even have the centre spacing which is made intentionally, to avoid heat build up, leading to combustion when IF/WHEN WE HAVE HEATWAVES!
Isnt it strange there are’t any “tracks”, leading up to them, the kind you get when you roll your own snowman and have lifted up the snow to make your snowman bigger, or the car tyres leave behind.
To all you people who think these are round bales, wrong! I’ve seen these before in England, a good while ago now in Lancashire not round bales just fluffy snow cylinders
no doubt, it\’s been the inspiration of nature behind the curtain all along – nudging our ape brains toward developments like the wheel (et al). to the idea-laden rock we\’re lucky enough to dwell on i say, cheers old girl – keep em coming.
WOW!!! Never heard of this before, and yeah, wonder why/how the hole in the middle.
Hmm, hay bales that are all different sizes and have a big hole in the middle, give the hay rolling farmers a bit of credit!
I’m no farmer, but I don’t ever recall seeing hay bales scattered around a field this time of year, think that got something to do with the harvest? and seasons of the year?
what a load of snow balls
Snow hula hoops for snowmen!
some fascianting phenomenon.
………there are more things in heaven and earth………….
they’re following the yellow brick road…
Hay would rot if left out throughout autumn and winter. Farmers store it in hay barns instead. These snow formations are clearly a natural phenomenon. The description of how they are formed is in the article linked to at the Telegraph.
@Carolyn thanks that was some good background info.
I never seen this before, I guess this phenomena is commonly seen on the steps of Russia. Talking about heavy gusts brrrrr….
i didn’t believe this at first but looked it up and yes its true tho precise conditions are needed to make it happenand we have had them this winter. pretty cool , i would love to really see them
I actually saw one of these rolling up the street, wondered what the hell was going on,