Yukimarimo, balls, rollers, strings, and swirls: Natural patterns in snow, and meteorological conditions for formations of “snow beauties”

Abstract

The Hokkaido Shimbun Press conducted a photo-collecting campaign of "Searching for Yukimarimo in Hokkaido" from December 2012 to March 2013. Forty-two pictures of "snow beauties", including yukimarimo, were collected from citizens in Hokkaido, Japan. This paper summarizes the shapes and formational meteorological conditions(air temperature, wind speed and maximum wind speed) of six types of snow beauties: yukimarimo, snow balls, snow rollers, snow rollers on the front glass of cars, snow strings, and snow swirls using AMeDAS meteorological data, which is operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency.