The Beauty of Snow
FOX 2 (Detroit) - You’ve probably heard each snowflake is different. And that’s true. When snowflakes are forming, the way the ice crystals join together produce different shapes. Most snowflakes have six points or six sides forming seven basic shapes.
Snow crystal shapes are based on temperature. Ice crystals change their shape as they fall dependent upon the temperature, but they keep their six sided shape with identical arms because each arm encounters the same conditions.
Let’s examine some of the shapes. From 32 to 25 degrees F, thin Hexagonal Plates form.
Colder than that, in the 25 to 21 degree range, Needles form.
Hollow Columns form at 21 to 14 degrees, while flower looking crystals with 6 petals form at 14 to 10 degrees.
The six armed Dendrites form in the coldest air 10 to 3 degrees.
(Paul Sirajuddin)
Remember, many snow crystals group together to form just one snowflake.
And they’re small. Ranging in size from a half inch to 2 inches wide.
If it’s windy, snow crystals break into smaller fragments, becoming more densely packed. If it remains cold after a snow, like in our upcoming forecast, the texture, size and shape could change, eventually becoming compressed by additional snowfalls.
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