All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S01E10.Vampire.Down.Under.1080p.WEB.x264-CRiMSON

Narrator: worldwide, 300
Million surveillance cameras

Are watching us.

On our streets.

At work.

And in our homes.

They capture things that seem impossible.

It defies the laws of physics.

Man: this is unbelievable, man.

Narrator: experts carry
Out forensic analysis

Of these unusual events.

There's got to be some
Explanation for what's going on.

[ people screaming ]

Narrator: coming up...

Demonic destruction in a
Tunnel from the twilight zone.

Farrow: it's crazy. Cars
Just keep coming in,

And then they don't come out again.

Narrator: fear of atomic
Monsters in the fallout zone.

Price: is it alive? We don't know.

But it's not like anything
We've seen before.

[ growls ]

Narrator: extinct beasts caught on camera.

It's just unbelievable.

This thing's just weird.

And the spooky snowballs
That make themselves.

They appear out of
Nowhere. What's going on?

Narrator: bizarre phenomena.

Mysteries caught on surveillance.

What's the truth behind
This strange evidence?

♪♪

Surveillance cameras
Capture car-crash chaos

In a spooky tunnel.

[ crashing ]

I just find this a
Completely terrifying video.

Maybe there's more that's
Going on than just driver error.

Narrator: baffled experts
Search for clues in the carnage.

When it keeps happening,

That tunnel starts to get a reputation.

It's known as the tunnel of death.

Narrator: moscow, russia.

The lefortovo tunnel.

Surveillance cameras keep a watchful eye

On one of the city's major arteries.

4,000 vehicles pass
Through here every hour.

Without warning, the cameras
Witness the unexplained.

You keep seeing cars drive in and then

Swerve all over the place, hit the walls,

Hit other cars. More cars pile in.

The idea that cars suddenly
Lose control over and over...

It really is quite scary.

It's almost like there's
Some unseen hidden force

That's making these crashes happen.

♪♪

Narrator: these unexplained
Crashes are not isolated incidents.

[ crashing, tires squealing ]

Weirdly, in just 6 years, cameras capture

Over 1,000 pile-ups here.

[ crashing ]

Pyotr shkumatov is an expert
On moscow's traffic accidents.

What's wrong with this tunnel?

[ crashing ]

♪♪

Narrator: some locals tell
Experts the mayhem in the tunnel

May be a result of supernatural forces.

One of the things that happens
When kind of a lot of people

Start crashing in the same spot

Is that you might think
That that place is cursed.

♪♪

Narrator: legend has it, the
Ghosts of tunnel workers

Lurk in the shadows.

Tortured souls who take their
Revenge on unsuspecting drivers.

♪♪

Analysis of the lefortovo
Tunnel route reveals

That it runs by a historic cemetery.

For hundreds of years,

Russians buried foreigners in these graves.

Unhappy visitors who never made it home.

It's too close for comfort
For some moscow drivers.

But scientists look for another
Explanation for the carnage.

They analyze russian road-accident data

And discover a shocking statistic.

Over 30,000 people die on
Russian roads every year.

That's the same as the u.S.,

But russia has half the population.

We've all seen the
Russian-driver dash-cam videos.

To say that russian
Drivers are somehow crazier

Than other drivers...

I mean, I'm not totally convinced.

I think we just see it more
'cause everyone has a dash cam,

Which is not the case
In most other countries.

Narrator: but frame-by-frame
Analysis of the surveillance footage

Reveals many of the tunnel
Crashes come out of the blue.

These cars are driving
Normally, in a straight line,

And then all of a sudden
They swerve and crash.

Which isn't really consistent
With reckless driving.

Wolshon: clearly, when you see
A consistent pattern like this,

That would suggest maybe
There's more that's going on

Than just driver error.

Narrator: transport engineer brian wolshon

Studies the surveillance footage.

He examines the overhead lighting.

The idea with tunnel lighting is
To not have any abrupt changes

In the driving environment.

Narrator: wolshon wonders if the lights

At the tunnel entrance are to blame.

Wolshon: one of the
Questions we could ask is,

Were some of these drivers not able

To actually see

The vehicles in front of them?

They could be coming from
Daylight entering the tunnel

That appears to be well-lit,

But their eyes haven't adjusted yet,

So it's actually too dark.

Narrator: reports show that the
Russian authorities have examined

If the tunnel lighting is too dim.

Engineer valeriy merkin,

A consultant on the tunnel project,

Confirms this.

But government reports
Confirm that tunnel engineers

Have made the lighting brighter.

Experts consider the hypnotic
Effects of tunnel driving.

They wonder if drivers zone out

Traveling through
Predictable repetitive scenery.

Wolshon: one of the concerns
For driving through tunnels

Is a sense of monotony where
Drivers will lose their focus

Or lose their concentration,

Because there's not as many visual clues

As you would have in a
Regular open-road setting.

Narrator: 1,500 miles away in norway,

The designers of the world's
Longest road tunnel in laerdal

Bring in psychologist gunnar jenssen

To counter this deadly hypnosis.

A modern tunnel is very boring.

It's monotony.

You could fall asleep.

Narrator: flickering lights
Reflecting off the car hood

Are likely to match the hypnotic rhythm

That's biologically
Programmed to send us to sleep.

Some psychologists suggest
The key to preventing accidents

Is not to make lights brighter
After all but to dim them.

♪♪

Too dim or too bright,

Lighting does not seem to explain

What's going on in
Russia's tunnel of death.

♪♪

Coming up...

Genetic mutation and fears
Of a real-life nuclear monster.

This footage is from one
Of the most dangerous

Toxic places in the world.

Narrator: a killer beast
Back from the dead.

If this is what people are claiming it is,

It would rewrite biology
Books and history books

Throughout the world.

Narrator: and the mystery
Force making mayhem in moscow.

Once we are aware that this tunnel

Is actually under a river,

That could provide an explanation.

[ crashing ]

Narrator: analysts investigate multiple
Crashes in a moscow road tunnel.

They look at the possibility
Of ice in the tunnel.

If you look at when a lot
Of these crashes happen,

It's during the wintertime,

Where it gets very cold in russia.

Narrator: moscow is one of the
Coldest capital cities in the world.

Winter temperatures
Regularly drop to 14 degrees.

About 5 feet of snow
Covers the city annually.

Foster: that leads to poor road conditions.

There could be ice on the road, or snow.

And obviously that could increase

Your frequency of accidents.

Narrator: investigators
Consider how the weather

Might cause mayhem in a tunnel.

But you'd think that
Kind of a tunnel's inside,

So surely outdoor conditions

Don't really have much to do with it.

Narrator: a check of the
Engineering drawings reveals

That the tunnel runs
Beneath moscow's yauza river.

♪♪

Once we are aware that
This tunnel is actually

Under a river,

That could provide an explanation.

In the tunnel, obviously
You're underground.

The people probably think that
The road conditions will be nice

And dry and perfect for driving along.

But that may not always be the case.

Despite the best efforts of
Engineers and contractors

Who build tunnels,

Tunnel segments don't
Always have a water-tight seal.

And leaks can happen.

Narrator: scientists
Believe this water forms

A super-thin layer of transparent ice

That sits on top of the dark asphalt.

It doesn't take a lot of water

To generate a very,
Very thin coating of ice.

Narrator: it's known as black ice,

And makes the road surface frictionless.

♪♪

Your brain can't identify it.

It can't scan the see it.

So you will automatically
Think that this road surface

Is perfect, you can drive across it.

It's not gonna behave
The way you expect it to.

It's completely invisible.

And the moment the grip of
Your tire meets that stuff,

You're lost.

Narrator: but for some locals,
The ice explanation doesn't add up.

[ crashing ]

While the invisible force
Behind the traffic mayhem

Is unconfirmed, moscow's tunnel of death

Continues to terrorize
Unsuspecting drivers.

[ crashing ]

♪♪

And now... Nuclear meltdown.

This footage is from one of
The most dangerous toxic places

In the world.

Narrator: the fallout exclusion
Zone should be empty,

But there's something there.

You suddenly start to get this movement.

This formless thing.

Price: is it alive? It's moving.

Not like anything we've seen before.

♪♪

Narrator: japan. March 11, 2011.

2:46 pm.

A massive earthquake
Measuring 9 on the richter scale

Rocks the country.

[ woman speaking japanese ]

It moves japan's main
Island more than 8 feet east

And sends a giant tsunami
Hurtling towards the coast

At 500 miles an hour.

[ siren wails ]

Directly in the path
Of the 30-foot-high wave

Is the fukushima nuclear power plant.

♪♪

It flooded the reactors
And basically shut down

The cooling processes.

The result was a core meltdown
Followed by a hydrogen explosion

That blew the building open.

♪♪

Within a matter of
Minutes, fukushima becomes

One of the most dangerous
Places on the planet.

Narrator: it's a nightmare scenario.

300 million cubic feet of radioactive waste

Is scattered across
An area the size of ohio.

It is the worst nuclear
Disaster since chernobyl in 1986.

There's a panic because no one knows

How far this radiation is going to spread.

Time is of the essence.
You have to flee immediately

Or you're gonna get sick.

[ police radio chatter ]

Narrator: fukushima scientists
Place the nuclear power station

In immediate lock down.

Cctv cameras monitor the
Radiation exclusion zone.

These cameras are running 24/7,

And people can tune in at
Any point and watch them live.

Narrator: for 3 years, the cameras
Keep watch on the abandoned plant.

Then in july 2014,

A camera scanning
Reactor 4 picks up movement.

A glowing entity in the
Heart of the no-go zone.

Price: is it alive? We don't know.

But it's moving.

And it's moving in ways that are unexpected

And not like anything we've seen before.

This is in a radioactive zone

Where nothing should be whatsoever.

Certainly nothing living.

Fisher: this is one of the world's
Few nuclear-reactor disasters,

So what would we
Expect to see in this video

That we might not have
Seen anywhere else before?

♪♪

Narrator: investigators consider
If the plant's leaking radiation

Has created a mutant atomic monster.

Sella: one of the things
The radiation will do

Is they will damage dna
That will cause mutations.

And that will cause small
Changes in an organism.

Is it causing some kind of mutation?

Is it creating some kind of monster?

Radiation is an extremely powerful beast,

And when it's on your side
It can do amazing things.

But if it turns on you,
Yeah you'd better watch out.

Narrator: two atom bombs have
Shown the japanese the bizarre

And horrific effects of nuclear radiation.

Their fears are reflected in their movies.

Godzilla was born out of radioactive fire

And comes onto land to ravage tokyo.

The idea that there's a radiation monster

That comes from some
Sort of radiological event

Is ingrained in japanese culture.

We've had so many films

Where there's some terrible radiation event

And that creates a
New life form, a monster.

And, oh, my god, here
Is our worst nightmare

Actually coming true before our eyes.

Narrator: coming up...

A close encounter with a
Beast from beyond the grave.

I've never seen anything
Else move like this.

Narrator: and mutant
Monsters versus the robots.

Sella: they're robots

That are actually sent
Into the reactor chamber.

They actually have quite limited lifetimes

Because of the intensity of the radiation.

Narrator: experts investigate if a
Camera has captured a mutant entity

In the fallout zone of a nuclear disaster.

♪♪

They examine levels of
Radiation leaking from reactor 4.

There are toxically high
Levels of radiation there.

That results in radiation
Poisoning and death.

That does not result in horrific mutations.

♪♪

Narrator: radiation levels
Inside the fukushima reactors

Are high enough to
Kill a human in 3 minutes.

All explorations of the core
Are undertaken by robots.

But even the robots struggle.

They're robots

That are actually sent
Into the reactor chamber.

They actually have quite limited lifetimes

Because of the intensity of the radiation.

Narrator: in parts of the
Reactor, the radiation is so high

The robots survive only a few hours.

Radiation will completely fry electronics.

But they'll go in, they'll
Be able to do enough things

That makes it worthwhile,
Then they die in place.

Narrator: it leads some to
Suggest the strange apparition

On the surveillance tape

Could be the result of radiation damage

To the cctv camera's electronics.

What are the chances that this camera,

Which is operating day and
Night in this kind of environment,

Maybe it's suffering from some degradation.

Narrator: analysis of footage
From the fukushima robots

Reveals what radiation
Does to a recorded image.

The radiation particles go through the lens

And they hit the photosensitive
Layers of the camera.

And typically what this
Causes is a little spark.

There's a release of energy,
And so what you see in the image

Is you see a little flash.

But certainly not these
Kinds of wavy patterns

Or anything like that.

♪♪

Narrator: optic specialist
Robert fisher believes

That the position of the
Reactor 4 camera may offer a clue.

The cctv camera observing
The scene is outdoors

And it's subject to all
The normal outdoor stuff,

Rain and mist,

So the water can build
Up in front of the lens.

Narrator: fisher proposes the
Strange entity could be caused

By a rare combination
Of wind, light, and water.

He tests his theory in the lab.

Okay, so, we've got a little
Bit of water on the screen.

You can see the strange
Little sparkle patterns.

Narrator: fisher uses a desk fan
To simulate the wind and a torch

To represent fukushima's
Security flood lights.

You can see the little sparkly effects.

If the light were on a pole,

Moving around a little bit in the breeze,

You can see that the lighting
Patterns are changing.

♪♪

I think there's a pretty good chance

That what's causing the
Things that we see in the video

Are just a little bit of
Water, a little bit of wind,

A little bit of changing lighting maybe.

♪♪

Narrator: but analysts
Wonder if this is merely

An effect of wind and rain,

Why has such an image
Never been captured before?

The camera has been operating for 3 years

And it has rained many times at the site.

♪♪

At the end, you end up at what
You think is your best guess

As to what the observation really is.

Narrator: it could take 30
Years before reactor 4 is safe

For humans to enter.

Until then, scientists
Are unable to establish

What's happened as the
Result of the nuclear fallout.

All they can do is send in more robots

And monitor the surveillance cameras.

♪♪

Now...

A bush cam captures a forest predator

That defies explanation.

It's just unbelievable.

This thing's just weird.

Some believe it's a beast
Risen from the dead.

Mooney: they were pursuit carnivores,

And the mythology is
That they only drank blood.

♪♪

Narrator: the island of tasmania.

A secluded rugged wilderness

150 miles off the coast of australia.

Living in its remote forest

Are species not found
Anywhere else on earth.

November 2016.

Local trackers venture deep into
The forests of central tasmania.

The area is unforgiving.
She's wild country out here.

Yeah.

The tasmanian bushland? It is thick.

There's a lot of treachery.

And visibility is less than
2 meters from the track.

Their mission?

To set camera traps to capture images

Of the creatures living here.

We place the cameras out,

Ensure that it's
Positioned on a game trail.

♪♪

2 weeks later, the team
Review their footage

And that is when they see it.

It's the most amazing thing that I've seen.

It was exciting to see this video.

We were shocked.

In the half light, a strange creature moves

Stealthily through the bush.

It's just unbelievable.

This thing's just weird.

Weird.

The head is really big.

It's got a really big jawline.

The nose of the animal, or
The muzzle, is really long.

It's a strange animal.

It's hard to make out.

It has a pretty straight tail,

Features I find really intriguing.

I wish it was higher resolution.

Narrator: and then as swiftly
As the animal appears, it's gone.

The people who took this video?

They've been out in the bush
For years watching animals.

Watching them move.
Watching their behaviors.

So if they're seeing something
That doesn't look like anything

They've ever seen before?

That really makes me want to trust them.

Narrator: the tasmanian trackers
Believe the creature caught

By their camera trap

Matches the description of
An elusive legendary beast.

I was absolutely gobsmacked.

I knew straight away what I saw.

It's a tasmanian tiger.

One of the great extinction mysteries

Of the last hundred years has been

Whether the tasmanian
Tiger is actually extinct.

♪♪

Narrator: coming up...

Spooky sightings of spontaneous snowballs.

It looks like some kind
Of synchronized movement.

I've never seen anything like it.

Narrator: and analysts try
To decode what kind of beast

Is roaming the tasmanian forests.

I watched the footage over and over again

And was kind of entranced
By how strangely it moved.

Narrator: a trail cam
Captures an unexplained

Shadowy creature prowling the outback.

Local trackers believe they've
Captured an extinct beast

Come back from the grave.

♪♪

The tasmanian tiger was
Hunted to extinction in the 1930s.

This footage reveals the
Last remaining specimen

Which died in hobart
Zoo on september 7, 1936.

It is unlike any creature alive today.

Tasmanian tigers are really unique.

They are not tigers at all.

They look a lot like a wolf.

But they're not wolves, they're not dogs.

They're actually marsupials
Like the australian kangaroo.

The tasmanian tiger roamed
Around the grasslands

And forests of tasmania.

It hunted kangaroos and possums
And other large-bodied prey,

So it was, for a long while,
The top predator in tasmania.

♪♪

Narrator: if the tasmanian
Trackers' theory is right,

Their camera trap has captured
A forest predator resurrection.

♪♪

It wouldn't be the first time

An extinct species came back from the dead.

There's been a number of cases of animals

Thought extinct for decades,

Even more than a century,
That have been discovered.

Narrator: there are a number of
These so-called lazarus species.

Omura's whale was
Declared extinct for a decade,

Until a pod was photographed
Off the coast of madagascar.

The okapi, feared lost in 1959,

Was rediscovered in the
Forests of congo in 2005.

And on mainland australia,

The night parrot was rediscovered in 2013.

We had a lot of suspicion
That this desert-dwelling bird

Had gone extinct in the 1930s.

No one had seen it for over
70 years, and then it was found.

♪♪

Narrator: nick mooney is a former
Head of parks and wildlife,

An expert in identifying animals

Caught on low-resolution surveillance cams.

The tasmanian tracker team
Give him their footage to analyze.

Mooney: it's not very clear footage.

As I looked at it more and more

And then was able to make
Some measurements of the animal,

Freeze the footage, and
Compare it with this or that...

Narrator: mooney examines the
Tape for the telltale signs

Of a tasmanian tiger.

The easiest way to
Describe a tasmanian tiger is,

Think of a wolf and then
Add stripes to its back.

Narrator: mooney's frame-by-frame analysis

Fails to identify a clear set of stripes,

But that doesn't mean they're not there.

The fact that you can't
See stripes is no surprise.

That type of digital lens will not give you

Great detail in poor light.

The stripes on an animal like a tazzy tiger

Are meant to camouflage.

You're not meant to
Have outstanding stripes.

So at a certain distance, you
Won't see them clearly anyway.

♪♪

Narrator: mooney examines the
Footage for other characteristics

Of a tasmanian tiger.

It had a very long,
Reasonably inflexible tail.

The vertebrae of the tail are very long.

Means the tail is... It
Can't wag, it can't curl,

And do those sorts of things,
Somewhat like a kangaroo tail.

♪♪

There's no way it was a possum or a cat.

I've never seen a dog
With that sort of tail

And that sort of proportion
To the body, the tail.

You very quickly run out of options.

Narrator: barry brook
Has investigated reports

Of tasmanian tigers for the last 20 years.

He analyzes the mystery creature's movement

And confirms its gate is
That of a predatory marsupial,

But that doesn't mean
It's a tasmanian tiger.

What we see is essentially
The back of a slinking animal

That was likely to be a predator,

But the form of movement strongly suggests

To me it looks more like a quoll.

Narrator: quolls are spotted
Marsupial predators

Only found in the forests

Of mainland australia and tasmania.

The head of a large spotted-tail
Quoll is very similar in shape

And form to that of a tazzy tiger.

So even head-on, mistaking a large quoll

For a small tazzy tiger

Is not a ridiculous scenario at all.

♪♪

Narrator: coming up...

A rural store is the site
Of a spooky visitation.

There's no tracks or anything.

What's amazing to me is that

How could all them snowballs
Be there without tracks?

Narrator: and analysis of the
Mysterious tasmanian beast's size

Raises a tantalizing possibility.

This video could prove that
An animal that once was thought

To be extinct has come back from the dead.

♪♪

Narrator: experts analyze
Footage of a strange predator

On the island of tasmania.

Is it a creature called a quoll

Or a legendary tasmanian
Tiger back from the dead?

♪♪

Tiger quolls have a very similar shape

To the tasmanian tiger,
But they're much smaller.

Narrator: nick mooney
Returns to the footage

For a way of estimating
The animal's true size.

He compares it to other wildlife
Filmed at the same location.

Mooney: so, we searched the
Footage and found lyrebird

In the same place taken by the same camera.

Narrator: an adult lyrebird
Can reach three feet in length.

Mooney's scale analysis
Confirms the mystery creature

Is nearer to the size of a quoll.

It should be at least twice as high as that

To be a wild free-ranging tasmanian tiger.

♪♪

Narrator: yet some zoologists
Believe there's another

Tantalizing possibility.

It could potentially be
Just a very small individual

Or a very young one.

If this is what people are claiming it is,

It would rewrite biology books

And history books throughout the world.

Narrator: experts reviewing
The surveillance footage

Remain divided.

The tasmanian tiger lover in me says

I would love it to be out there,

But we need more hard evidence
In this for me to be convinced.

Narrator: new evidence emerges
When the tasmanian trackers

Rewind their recording.

Just minutes before the
Mysterious beast appears,

The camera captures another visitation.

The footage is interesting,
There's no doubt.

It's a nose which pops up
In front of the camera lens

For a short amount of time.

The nose itself looks a lot
Like a tiger quoll's nose...

Large, pink, and wet,
Just like that nose looked.

And the tasmanian tiger's nose wasn't pink.

It was more of a brownish-black color.

That strongly suggests to me
It wasn't a tasmanian tiger nose.

The camera was at 1.3 meters high.

That's too high for a tasmanian tiger.

So the animal that sniffed the
Camera was hanging onto the tree

And climbed up it, such as
A spotted-tail quoll might.

They're very good climbers.

Narrator: without the conclusive proof,

The beast caught on
Camera remains unidentified.

I think the best chance of us observing

A tasmanian tiger in the wild,

If it's still out there,

Is setting up remote cameras

In locations where
They're likely to be found

And leaving them out there for long enough

To try and serendipitously catch something.

We will see another tiger,
We will get him on film,

And we'll prove to the
World the tiger is there.

[ growls ]

♪♪

Narrator: now, security cameras
Capture strange things happening.

Snowballs created out of the ground.

It's scary.

Narrator: investigators are baffled
By the self-rolling snowballs.

Little snowballs make themselves
By rolling across the lawn.

What's going on?

♪♪

Narrator: orrville, a
Small city in rural ohio.

Ken stoller runs the
Local garden supply store.

A battery of security
Cameras monitors his stock 24/7.

The whole yard is
Normally full of equipment,

But over the weekend, we put it away.

Narrator: january 27, 2014.

♪♪

A cold front blows in from lake erie.

An icy winter storm blasts the city,

Covering the silent
Streets in a blanket of snow.

The next morning, ken
Stoller heads to work early

To survey the scene.

Stoller: I was the first one
Into work that morning.

It was really cold. It
Was probably close to 0.

Narrator: as he approaches the
Store, he is met by an unnerving sight.

Stoller: I see these snowballs
In the yard, and I thought,

"Well, who's throwing
Them snowballs in my yard?"

Narrator: the phantom
Snowballs defy belief.

Stoller: it's not packed very tight,

But it's just kind of rolled like a cake.

Well, I just thought, "That's strange."

Narrator: stoller believes he's
The victim of a high school prank.

And then I got to thinking,
"Well, I probably have

A video from my security camera."

And I could see how they were being made.

Narrator: what stoller's security
Footage reveals is no joke...

Hundreds of snowballs

Spontaneously growing from the snow.

They're actually starting from nothing

And just all of a sudden snowballs rolling.

Some got bigger and some
Stopped and then make it bigger.

They roll some more and
Some new ones would start.

The whole thing happened
In about two minutes,

Maybe, from the start to done.

Narrator: stoller is mystified
By his backyard surveillance

And releases his footage online.

Investigators attempt to
Explain the unseen force

Creating these bizarre snow boulders.

♪♪

Narrator: scientists are baffled.

In front of a garden supply
Store, a snowy visitation.

It looks like some kind
Of synchronized movement.

I've never seen anything like it.

And to see all these different
Balls moving together,

It's really crazy.

They appear out of nowhere.

They just seem to roll and build up.

Narrator: locals turn to the
Weather for an explanation.

Looking at it, the only
Thing I could think of

Was it had to have
Been wind and blowing it.

It seems strange to me.

Narrator: the problem is,
The wind is blowing snow

Across the entire city,

But the self-generating snowballs

Only appear in ken stoller's yard.

In places like ohio, there's a lot of wind.

There's also a lot of snow.

But I've never seen
Anything like this before.

So you have to ask
Yourself, why is this there?

Narrator: the footage
Comes to the attention

Of biologist roland kays.

He studies the pattern
Of snowball movement.

He's reminded of a similar phenomenon

In the animal kingdom...

The work of a species active in winter.

The possibility is that
It's actually some animal

Running underneath the snow.

Lemmings are small, little,
Mice-like creatures that burrow

Around underneath the snow all the time.

And as they go, they're sort
Of pushing up this ball of snow

In front of them, kind of like a snow plow.

♪♪

Narrator: lemmings are usually solitary,

But when populations become too dense,

They migrate en masse.

Experts consider if the 100-plus snowballs

Could be driven by burrowing critters.

♪♪

Ken stoller checks his surveillance tape

For signs of animal activity.

No footprints, no tracks, or anything.

What was amazing to me
Is that how could all them

Snowballs be there without tracks?

I didn't have an answer for it.

Narrator: chemist andrea
Sella believes clues could lie

In the type of snow that fell that night.

Sella: snow is made of frozen water.

It's a little bit too warm,
We know that it'll melt

Almost immediately.

If it's a little bit too cold,

Then it'll be dry and form
Something very powdery.

But somewhere in the middle,
What you'll get is something

Which sticks to itself quite well.

Those are the conditions that you want,

Because that's when you
Can scoop the snow up,

Do this, and get something
Proper and compact.

Narrator: sella notices, on the night
Of ken stoller's spooky apparition,

Sticky snow falls on top of a
Compacted icy layer in the yard,

And the two layers don't mix.

Sella proposes all that's needed
To generate phantom snowballs

Is a force to scoop up the snow.

♪♪

Chemist suze kundu from
Surrey university, england,

Detects a clue in the movement
Of snowflakes in the video.

You can see stray
Snowflakes flying sideways.

I think the wind may have
Something to do with it.

Narrator: a check of atmospheric
Conditions during the storm

Reveals wind speeds of 60 miles per hour

Throughout the night...

Powerful enough to shift snow.

Kundu tests her theory.

A super-cooled steel
Plate mimics the icy ground.

Soft ice cream has the
Same sticky properties

As the fresh snow.

And kundu uses a spatula
To simulate the power

Of a 60-mile-per-hour wind.

Kundu: what you should see
Is a sort of roll developing.

This is exactly what
We're seeing with the snow.

Here, the ice cream has
Managed to lift itself up,

Roll over onto itself,

And create these roll-like structures.

Narrator: scientists have dubbed
These extremely rare structures

Snow rollers.

Experts believe this perfect
Snowstorm occurs so infrequently

That stoller is the first to
Capture them forming on camera.

They're very unique. You
Don't see them very often,

Maybe once in a lifetime.

This little video really
Captures this extraordinary,

Beautiful, weird little forms

Using wind, snow, and maybe a bit of magic.

♪♪