Paper Snowflakes for Children!

Guide to Snow Crystals and Snowflakes

Introduction to concepts of symmetry, angles, and hexagons and how water forms into ice crystals.

Frequently Asked Questions about Snow Crystals and Snowflakes.

Answers to common questions about how Ice Crystals and Snowflakes Form.

Snowflakes are formed when water vapor in the air cools and condenses into drops of water.

Each drop then freezes into a tiny ice crystal smaller than the period ( ^. ) at the end of this sentence.

The temperature and amount of water vapor determine the shape of snow crystals.

Snowflake crystals form when water vapor cools and freezes inside clouds.

What are common snowflake shapes and sizes?

You might be surprised to find that snowflakes are not all six-sided.
Some snow crystals form into:

Guide to Different Types of Snowflakes and Other Flaky Snow Facts

"... I have found no exact duplicate. In this storehouse of crystal treasures, what a delight is in store for all future lovers of snowflakes and of the beautiful in nature."
W. A. (Snowflake) Bentley

There are many reasons that no two snowflakes are alike. Factors that influence the size and shape of a snowflake are:

• Air currents (which direction the air is moving)
• Humidity levels (the amount of water vapor in the air)
• How long it takes the crystal to fall
• Wind speed
• Amount of dust, salt or other solid particles in the air
• Pressure from the weight of other snow crystals
• Combining shapes with other snow crystals
• Changes to any of these factors

How do Snowflakes Form?

• Falling snow starts with precipitation
• Falling snow is called "Precipitated Snow".
• "Precipitate" means: to condense as a vapor and fall from the sky.
• Every snow crystal starts as "precipitation".

The book: "Rain, Hail, Snow and Sleet" teaches about "precipitation".

Snowflakes are Symmetrical

• Every snowflake is a collection of snow crystals.
• Snowflakes can consist of only 2 snow crystals or hundreds of snow crystals.
• Snow crystals are frozen water molecules which bond to each other.
• Snowflakes are formed when Snow Crystals grow into tiny, sometimes microscopic, "symmetrical" shapes.
• "Symmetrical" means: proportional, or having an equal number of parts.
• A perfectly formed 6-sided snowflake is called "symmetrical".

Metamorphosed Snow

• Every snowflake changes as it ages.
• Changing snow is called "Metamorphosed Snow".
• "Metamorphose" means: to change or transform into a different physical form.
• Water vapor that has changed into snow crystals is "Metamorphosed snow".

No Two Snowflakes Are Exactly Alike

It's true, just like human fingerprints are each different, every snowflake is different.

There are an infinite variety of snowflakes. Wilson (Snowflake) Bentley, an American farmer who devoted most of his life to the examination and photography of snowflakes, never found two identical snowflakes.

Snow crystal forms generally fall into broad categories, or Snowflake and Ice Crystal Classifications which are used to create a common form of reference to describe snow crystals.

Why should we care about Snow types?

Avalanches Happen

Where is the Coldest Place on Earth?

Antarctica is the coldest place on earth. The next coldest places are a few areas in Russia.

The snowflakes that fall on Antarctica hold valuable scientific information about the atmospheric conditions at the time of their formation.

This long-term climatic and environmental information is contained in the dust, chemicals and gas that was trapped in the ice during the snowflake's formation.

The Antarctic ice sheet is a collection of snowfalls that fell over hundreds of thousands of years.

Global Snowflake Network Scientists are enlisting volunteers to document the shape of snowflakes around the world.

Sources: National Weather Service - National Snow and Ice Data Center - Snowcrystals.com (Kenneth Libbrecht's Most Excellent snow and ice crystal site)