As the snow creeps down the roof of our cabin, it curls over the edge
and does this...
ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/Bent_Icycles.jpg
which I thought was pretty weird. But I grew up in the South, where
there are no icicles, so it may be common. And I'm easily amused.
I've never seen it that pronounced. Neat.
Our building codes require flat structures to handle 400 pounds of
snow load per square foot, so roofs tend to be steeply peaked.
A few years back many roofs were collapsing in VT after a 3' snowfall
on St. Valentines day, another 2' a few weeks later, in addition to
the frequent 2-6" storms. There isn't often a melt between Christmas
and April, so what falls tends to stay.
Every now and then the whole mess on the roof avalanches off onto the
ground (and any objects nearby.) That can get noisy.
Unless the roof is metal, it shouldn't avalanche off. The roof should
stay cold such that it melts top down. Most roofing material is rough
enough to keep it from sliding.
