Today's slideshow contains snowflakes in varying stages. The first two images are of tiny snowflakes just beginning to form. You can see both plates and columns that make up the structure of a snowflake. To the naked eye, these 'snowflakes' look like small specks of ice. The third and fourth photo are of small snowflakes that have already formed. These snowflakes often fall in clumps (called aggregate snowflakes) and look like huge snowflakes falling to the ground, but they are really groups of snowflakes that stick together and fall together. The final photo is a fully-formed snowflake. These are the snowflakes you see sparkling on top of the snow.
According to About Education, typical snowflakes range in size from the width of a human hair to nearly the size of a penny. Some reports claim that individual snowflakes can be as large as 3 to 4 inches across. One eye witness from Fort Keogh, Montana in January 1887, claims to have measured an aggregate snowflake that was 15 inches across.
The size and shape of a snowflake depends on the temperature in the clouds and the humidity level in the air. Generally, high humidity and low temperatures cause intricate or elaborate snowflakes to form. In the photos above, the small snowflakes fell at the beginning of the storm and the fully-formed snowflakes fell later in the day as the temps outside dropped.
If you are interested in how snowflakes form and grow, check out Snow Crystals. It provides several videos of snowflakes as they form. The snowflakes in the videos have been grown and filmed in a lab.
If you found this information interesting and like the photos, don't forget to share it with your friends or to leave me a comment.
According to About Education, typical snowflakes range in size from the width of a human hair to nearly the size of a penny. Some reports claim that individual snowflakes can be as large as 3 to 4 inches across. One eye witness from Fort Keogh, Montana in January 1887, claims to have measured an aggregate snowflake that was 15 inches across.
The size and shape of a snowflake depends on the temperature in the clouds and the humidity level in the air. Generally, high humidity and low temperatures cause intricate or elaborate snowflakes to form. In the photos above, the small snowflakes fell at the beginning of the storm and the fully-formed snowflakes fell later in the day as the temps outside dropped.
If you are interested in how snowflakes form and grow, check out Snow Crystals. It provides several videos of snowflakes as they form. The snowflakes in the videos have been grown and filmed in a lab.
If you found this information interesting and like the photos, don't forget to share it with your friends or to leave me a comment.
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