Snow Rollers Appear in Kansas

Russell Countians saw an unusual winter weather phenomenon Dec. 18, 2000. Strong winds coupled with just the right snow conditions to produce nature-generated snowballs. These "snow rollers" ranged in size from baseballs to 30-gallon drums. They were seen on city streets, golf courses, and other smooth surfaces throughout the county, including the towns of Lucas, Wilson, Luray and Russell.

Laughter was the major response when K-State Research and Extension agent John Stannard called around to find an explanation for the "self-rolling" snowballs. After some investigation, however, State of Kansas climatologist Mary Knapp found other documented cases -- in Alaska and Antarctica.  Recent outbreaks have occurred in Illinois, New York State.  With the advent of digital cameras more cases are being documented as well.

Below are some of the photographs taken by County Extension agent, John Stannard.  These photographs were taken on Fossil Lake near the intersection of I-70 and Highway 28 in Russell County.  Click on the images below to see a full-size picture (note: the full-size images are large and will take some time to download).

Snow rollers on Fossil Lake		Notice the layers on this snow roller.
Here you can see the various sizes		Both the large and the small snowballs show trails as they develop.