Snow rollers: Pennsylvania wind and snow create rare 'snow roller' display
| OIL CITY, Pa.
High winds and聽snow聽in western Pennsylvania combined Monday to create hundreds of examples of natural sculptures known as聽snow聽rollers.
Many residents of the Oil City area woke to find found the curious formations in their yards, gardens and fields.
JoAnn Heckathorn told The Derrick of Oil City that "" the size of jumbo rolls of paper towels were everywhere in her yard.
According to the National Weather Service, a聽snow聽roller聽is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which large snowballs are formed naturally when chunks of聽snow聽are blown along the ground by wind.
The shapes are often hollow, and the conditions need to be precisely right for them to form, according to the weather service. For example, wind must be strong enough to move the聽snow聽rollers, but not so strong they're blown too fast.
Weather service records from various states note that聽snow聽rollers聽can be as small as a golf ball or as large as a 30 gallon drum, but typically average 10 to 12 inches in diameter.
The area where the phenomenon was spotted Monday is about 90 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Some residents said the shapes resembled bowling balls, while Charles Keith of Franklin described "500 Tootsie Roll-like" forms in an empty field nearby.
Nancy Graham, 68, said her yard is covered with the rare forms, and that it's something she had never seen before.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
