Snowflake

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
This article is about Unique ice crystals, which form snow. For other uses, see Snowflake
(disambiguation).

Freshly fallen snowflakes

Macro photography of natural snowflake

A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated
with others, then falls through the Earth's atmosphere as snow.[1][2][3] Each flake nucleates around a
dust particle in supersaturated air masses by attracting supercooled cloud water droplets,
which freeze and accrete in crystal form. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through
differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, such that individual snowflakes differ in
detail from one another, but may be categorized in eight broad classifications and at least 80
individual variants. The main constituent shapes for ice crystals, from which combinations may
occur, are needle, column, plate, and rime. Snow appears white in color despite being made of clear
ice. This is due to diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the small crystal facets of the
snowflakes.[4]