There's Something Incredibly Bizarre Happening To The Snow In Idaho

Snow can mean a lot of things in Idaho. On the one hand, fresh powder equals mind-bogglingly beautiful scenery, epic skiing and snowboarding, cozy mountain cabins, and unrivaled hot spring day-trips. On the other hand, snow can also mean busting out doughnuts in abandoned parking lots late at night, and testing the limits of gravity by jumping off rooftops into piles of just-fallen snow (surely, I’m not the only one?).

But Idaho is also a seismically active and geographically diverse area, full of mountains, hills, valleys, and  everything in between, especially when it comes to weather. When it snows (and you know it will), crazy things can start to happen… like snow rollers.

Snow rollers — also known as snow doughnuts, or “snoughnuts” — require the perfect winter conditions to form, and for this reason they are a relatively rare natural phenomenon that you have to see to believe. But with the recent snowfall across the state these past few days, sightings of these adorable, free-moving snow jelly rolls are through the roof. Check it out!

WCN 24/7/Flickr

A snow roller is a unique meteorological phenomenon in which large tubes are formed naturally as snow is blown across the ground by heavy winds, growing and picking up snow along the way. Some claim aliens are involved.

Jared Cherup/Flickr

They're rare. They're awesome. And they're incredibly photogenic.

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Elisha Pospisil/Flickr

With snow once again covering Idaho earlier this week, multiple instances of snow rollers have been spotted in Fairfield, Craigmont, and McCall.

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WCN 24/7/Flickr

These frozen, nomadic snow sculptures can form just about anywhere given the right conditions, and often grow as large as 2 feet tall. They simply roll with the wind, sagebrush-style, leaving slight indents in the snow until their sheer weight prevents the wind from carrying them further.

Martin Bravenboer/Flickr

Sometimes they look like this, or form as long snake-like tubes stretching across the ground.

Wikimedia Commons

But most of the time they look like this.

John/Flickr

What are the ideal conditions, you ask? The ground should be covered by a layer of ice that fresh snow cannot stick to. The new snow should be the perfect temperature, somewhere between wet and frozen, and wind conditions must also be strong enough to move the snow rollers, but not strong enough to collapse them. Gravity can play a role in forming near-flawless tubes, but a large slope isn't always necessary.

Pretty awesome, huh? What else will Mother Nature come up with?! If you catch one of these tubes moving across the landscape, be sure to get up close and personal to see every layer of rolled snow — amazing!

What’s the most incredible snow phenomenon you’ve ever seen?