A rare treat from nature: Perfect snow doughnuts

The Seattle Times ^ | 3-17-07 | Susan Gilmore

[Renfield]

"This is no joke. We did not build it," said Mike Stanford, an avalanche-control expert with the state Department of Transportation (WSDOT). "They are a natural occurrence in nature."

Stanford found frozen doughnuts of snow on the top of Washington Pass in the North Cascades this week when he was doing avalanche-control work.

At first he couldn't believe his eyes: Perfectly shaped doughnuts had rolled down the mountainside and frozen in place......

[Renfield]

Really strange photo accompanies the article.

[Bahbah]

[A knight without armor]

Strange how they roll on flat land. The wind was very strong indeed.

[randog]

It's Bigfoot's doing...;^)

[mtbopfuyn]

Yum, powdered donuts!

[dynoman]

I've wondered how man got the idea for a wheel, now I know.

[Iscool]

I confess...I was just over there in the Cascades...I made them...They are real doughnuts...

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

That's cool. Now if they can sold the Death Valley Moving Rocks enigma for me I'll sleep better.

Looks like a wintergreen LifeSaver.

[Getready]

If you look carefully at the photo...you can see 2 small
black objects, and a long orange "carrot" shaped object
in a path to converge with the snow donut. Notice also
a "beret shaped" thin slab of rock in the upper left hand of
the photo. converging....If you look at the large format image,
not published however, there are other snow rollers and
they will converge. Some donuts will superposition themselves
on top of the snow rollers. When all the disparate items
converge, well....it blows your mind.

And that junior, is how snowmen came to be. So you don't
have to make one, they form from natures bounty, water,
and energy. All the time, anytime, it is inevitable.

Sarcasm/off

[Kevmo]

Not sure if this is the sort of thing for either of your ping lists, but I found it interesting.

[Bob]

"They are a natural occurrence in nature."

I'm confused. Aren't natural occurrences supposed to only happen in nature? Unless, of course, it's an artificial natural occurrence, I guess. As I said -- I'm confused.

[Western Phil]

We had snow rollers in Feb of 2003 here in Central Illinois. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/events/roller/roller.php

They were in a band from western Illinois to Cincinnati. We had an inch or two of powder snow that I think fell on Monday and they were predicting strong winds for overnight. My prediction was that we would have 3' drifts with vast bare areas as we had one time years ago. Monday evening the temperature went up to the high 30s or low 40s and the wind came. My prediction was that the now soft snow would freeze and form a crust with little or no drifting. This seemed to be the case and I did not notice anything unusual during my morning run or drive to work. That evening, however, the weather babe mentioned snow rollers & may have had a picture. The next morning upon closer examination the snow rollers appeared. There were thousands of them, the largest being about 6" - 11" in diameter. They had formed where ever the northwest wind had an open shot.
I normally consider myself reasonably observant about nature stuff, but certainly missed the rollers the first day. They all melted the second day.

[Sidebar Moderator]

This sort of an article can be classified in a number of ways, but not the ones you chose. Consider the three suggestions I've given you.

[BenLurkin]

[SunkenCiv]

I had to give up the Krispy Kreme ping list...

[Daffynition]

HAHAHA!

[Daffynition]

More snow rollers.

[Daffynition]

[Daffynition]

Snow + AWD = real snow donuts.

[BenLurkin]

Very good!