VIRUQUA, WISCONSIN – A WCCO viewer from western Wisconsin sent in the photo below, asking if we'd ever seen something like this before.
Robert T.
The photo shows snow formations hanging like anacondas waiting on a wooden trellis. Viewer Robert T. said: Some of the half rings dangled a full foot.
Our NEXT Weather team took a look at the falling snow and put their scientific minds together to come up with an explanation. Here's their educated guess about how something like this could happen:
A formation like this requires multiple elements to come together in a certain way. You need wet snow, a long period of temperatures that hover within a few degrees of freezing on both sides, and light winds.
At first, snow will accumulate on the wooden part of the trellis. Over time, because the snow is wet and sticky, it accumulates on the outside of the trellis, eventually gathering in the middle. It will bend as it did due to gravity and lack of support between the rafters of the trellis.
Recent fog and fog can create an icy exoskeleton on the snow, further cementing and preserving it.
With the recent warm weather, Robert said the formations have declined since then.
As always, you can submit your weather photos and videos to us at WCCO.com/photos.
