Many people may never have heard the term snow monsters, yet you have almost certainly seen a photo like the one above. Today we explore this fascinating natural phenomenon that captivates snow lovers everywhere.
What are Snow Monsters?
Snow monsters are evergreen trees (pines and firs) coated in a thick crust of windblown snow and rime ice that envelops them completely, giving them bizarre, ever-changing shapes.
How do they form?
For snow monsters to form, several specific weather conditions must occur simultaneously. Turning a tree into a “snow monster” requires freezing cold, heavy snowfall, and strong wind:
> Freezing cold plays a key role: sub-zero temperatures are essential before, during, and after the snow monster forms. Deep cold allows supercooled water droplets and snow to freeze onto the fir branches and hold their shape long after the storm passes.
> Freezing cold without heavy snow is not enough: the largest snow monsters only form in the presence of abundant snowfall.
> Wind is the third indispensable ingredient behind this natural spectacle: gale-force freezing winds plaster the snow and rime evenly across the trees, sculpting their signature shapes.
These 3 elements can be summed up in a single word: Blizzard.
Blizzards (or snowstorms) combine all of these essential ingredients at once.
view all 150 high-resolution photos
Where are they found?
The undisputed homeland of Snow Monsters is Japan, and specifically Mount Zao. Reaching an altitude of nearly 2,000 meters, this dormant volcano is home to a popular ski resort in the Land of the Rising Sun, where every winter thousands of skiers and sightseers ride up the mountain to admire the snow monsters (known locally as Juhyo) that blanket the slopes during the coldest months of the season.
This unique spectacle stems from the mountain’s geography: its location, exposure to steady streams of freezing Siberian air, and heavy snowfall make it the world capital of this extraordinary natural phenomenon.
On Mount Zao, you can ski, snowshoe, or skin up right through the middle of these surreal snow-encrusted trees, and there is even a dedicated area where visitors can admire and photograph the illuminated snow monsters at night.
Most famous photos of snow monsters are taken right here, in a place unmatched anywhere else in the world for its snow conditions.
Beyond Japan, snow monsters (often called “snow ghosts”) also form in the USA along the Rocky Mountains, where high elevations and exposure to moisture-laden Pacific storms bring abundant frost and snow—ideal conditions for creating snow monsters.
Snow monsters can also be found in the Andes mountain range, though less frequently than in North America.
Snow Monsters in the mountains of the USA
While the regions mentioned above come closest to the snow monsters of Mount Zao in Japan, a related phenomenon also occurs in slightly different form across Arctic regions.
In Canada, Lapland, and Siberia along the Arctic Circle, winter weather conditions also create snow-encrusted trees; there, however, the effect is primarily driven by relentless, deep frost that builds up successive layers of winter snow. As a result, they look more like towering, slender snow pillars rather than the squat, wind-sculpted snow monsters of Japan.
snow monsters in Canada
"Snow Monster" in Lapland
Snow Monsters in the Alps
In our Alps, their appearance is rare and short-lived. Fir trees occasionally take on this look after a heavy snowfall (over 50-70 cm of fresh snow) accompanied by sub-zero temperatures, almost exclusively above 2,000 meters.
The phenomenon is seen most often in Austria and Slovenia, where Siberian air masses collide with Atlantic storms, dumping more than a meter of snow in under 24 hours.
» Download 150 free “Snow Monsters” photos (27 MB .zip file)
» Record Photos: 10 meters of snow in Japan
» Snow Record in Italy: 9 meters in Sella Nevea, the photos
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