Tuesday, May 26, 2009 |
19:12 - This planet does the darndest things
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/05/20/roll-em-roll-em-roll-em-keep-that-snow-a-rolli
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Snow rollers. Is that cool or what?
On the evening of March 31st, 2009, Tim Tevebaugh was driving home from work east of Craigmont in the southern Idaho Panhandle (see map below). Across the rolling hay fields, Tim saw a very unusual phenomenon. The snow rollers that he took pictures of are extremely rare because of the unique combination of snow, wind, temperature and moisture needed to create them. They form with light but sticky snow and strong (but not too strong) winds. Some snow rollers are formed by gravity (i.e. rolling down a hill), but in this case, the snow rollers were generated by the wind.
Who knew all those 60-year-old Disney cartoons where characters would tumble down a snow-covered mountain and emerge at the bottom rolled up in a huge rumbling ball were actually based on fact?
And here I thought moguls were interesting.
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