Michigan Man Takes Cool Photos of Snow Rollers in His Yard
A guy from Linwood, Michigan took some really interesting photos earlier this morning of some "snow rollers" in his yard.
I'll be totally honest, I had no idea what a snow roller was until this year when I saw someone else posting on social media about them. Then I looked into the weird phenomenon a bit more and found a bunch of photos and videos of it happening in Northern Michigan.
What is a Snow Roller?
A snow roller is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which cylindrical snowballs are formed naturally as chunks of snow roll downhill or are blown along the ground by the wind, picking up further snow along the way. It's basically the same way snowballs are made. However, these look more like winter hay bales rather than snowballs. And they're not manmade, it's all thanks to Mother Nature. They're normally the size of a tennis ball, but in really rare cases, they can end up being bigger than a car.
Apparently, some people refer to them as snow bales, snow donuts, snownuts, or wind snowballs. The common term seems to be snow roller.
It's not the craziest thing ever but it is really cool to see stuff like this happen. You've got to admit, Michiganders have seen and heard some interesting things this winter.
If you happen to capture any weird weather related moments on camera, feel free to send them our way. We'd love to feature your story on our website.