snow roller


snow roller

[′snō ‚rō·lər] (hydrology) A mass of snow, shaped somewhat like a lady's muff, rather common in mountainous or hilly regions; it occurs when snow, moist enough to be cohesive, is picked up by wind blowing down a slope and rolled onward and downward until either it becomes too large or the ground levels off too much for the wind to propel it further; snow rollers vary in size from very small cylinders to some as large as 4 feet (1.2 meters) long and 7 feet (2.1 meters) in circumference.