Saskatchewan storm produces weird weather phenomenon

What looks like the remnants of a massive snowball fight can be seen across Saskatchewan today.

In the wake of Wednesday night’s storm, people are finding what are called “snow rollers” in their yards and on streets.

“It’s actually a very, very cool phenomenon and it’s something we don’t see often here because we often don’t get that really wet, sticky snow and those really strong winds at the same time,” Environment Canada meteorologist Terri Lang said Thursday.

Lang said “snow rollers” form only when conditions are exactly right — and they were perfect for the phenomenon Wednesday night.

“We have to have really warmer conditions, (with) a temperature sort of right around that freezing mark, so that’s when we get that really wet, sticky snow,” Lang said. “Of course we saw that last night because the temperatures were so close to freezing.

“But we also need really, really strong winds from the same direction and that’s also what we had last night. You might get a little piece of something going and as soon as the wind takes it, off it goes and it keeps rolling.”

(Kristy Werner/650 CKOM)

The wind likely took a lot of things Wednesday night, when a provincial wind speed record for January was set.

Lang said the weather station at Bratt’s Lake north of Regina recorded a maximum wind gust of 143 kilometres per hour, topping the old provincial record for the month of 134 km/h.

Lang expected to see more pictures of “snow rollers” during the day Thursday as more people got out into their yards or into the country.

The more room the snowballs have to roll, the bigger they can get.

“I’ve seen them as big as hay bales,” Lang said. “They look like cinnamon rolls because they’re actually rolling along … They can get quite big.”