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Macro photography of a natural snowflake. A snowflake is a single ice crystal that is large enough to fall through the Earth's atmosphere as snow. [1] [2] [3] Snow appears white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is because the many small crystal facets of the snowflakes scatter the sunlight between them. [4]
Snowflakes nucleate around particles in the atmosphere by attracting supercooled water droplets, which freeze in hexagonal-shaped crystals. Snowflakes take on a variety of shapes, basic among these are platelets, needles, columns and rime. As snow accumulates into a snowpack, it may blow into drifts.
An early classification of snowflakes by Israel Perkins Warren. [2] Snow was described in China, as early as 135 BCE in Han Ying's book Disconnection, which contrasted the pentagonal symmetry of flowers with the hexagonal symmetry of snow. [3] Albertus Magnus proved what may be the earliest detailed European description of snow in 1250.
Snow accumulation on ground and in tree branches in Germany Snow blowing across a highway in Canada Spring snow on a mountain in France. Classifications of snow describe and categorize the attributes of snow-generating weather events, including the individual crystals both in the air and on the ground, and the deposited snow pack as it changes over time.
The snowflakes form as air rises, cools, and condenses, usually around an area of low pressure. Whether or not precipitation remains snow or transitions to rain, freezing rain, sleet, hail or ...
The hexagonal snowflake, a crystalline formation of ice, has intrigued people throughout history. This is a chronology of interest and research into snowflakes. Artists, philosophers, and scientists have wondered at their shape, recorded them by hand or in photographs, and attempted to recreate hexagonal snowflakes.
All cheese undergoes some degree of processing, but American cheese especially so. Experts explain whether or not American cheese is considered real cheese.
Slower crystal growth from colder and drier atmospheres produces more hexagonal symmetry. [2] Depending on environmental temperature and humidity, ice crystals can develop from the initial hexagonal prism into many symmetric shapes. [4] Possible shapes for ice crystals are columns, needles, plates and dendrites. Mixed patterns are also possible ...