How Do Snowflakes Form?

This week Reactions is taking a microscopic look at snowflake science and how they form. Huge snowstorms and blizzards dump feet of snow from the skies every year, and that means trillions of tiny snowflakes. Through advances in crystallography, scientists have learned a lot about the structure of snowflakes. While they all start pretty much the same, once they start crystallizing, it’s true that no two snowflakes are alike. In fact, the number of possible shapes is staggering.

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Great infographic on the shapes of snowflakes from Compound Interest:

Music: Crookram- Bij De Rest (Creative Commons license)

Producer/Writer:
Elaine Seward

Executive Producer:
Adam Dylewski

Scientific consultants:
Jon Nelson, Ph.D.
Sophia Cai
Darcy Gentleman, Ph.D.

Sources:

Ever wonder why dogs sniff each others' butts? Or how Adderall works? Or whether it's OK to pee in the pool? We've got you covered: Reactions a web series about the chemistry that surrounds you every day.

Reactions is produced by the American Chemical Society.

[bigpoppa]

Lets be honest, you searched this up.

[nrnnn._.]

I searched this up cuz my country malaysia is so hot we didn’t have snow here 😭

[ibrahimibrahim]

And they still say that god doesn’t exists and everything just happened out of nowhere 🤦🏻‍♂️

[shelv]

Another evidence of god's existence

[godaughter]

God is well oragnized even in simple things.

[davidfoss]

In case some one wants to try it I once tried taking photos of snowflakes simply by pointing my camera (fixed on a tripod) through the eyepiece of a microscope. It worked and I have a few pictures similar to the first one in the video - with the not so artistic background. The biggest challenge was keeping the snowflake from melting. Obviously the equipment has to be cold but the light source introduced heat that forced me to focus really fast, pretty challenging with two lens systems. I was going to try putting a tank of water between the light source and the microscope to capture the infrared but winter ended before I could try it. All this was before the internet so you can probably find better techniques online now.
A couple other things, this tends to be bare handed work so take breaks to let you fingers warm up. I caught the snowflakes in the air directly on a microscope slide which is easiest in a light snow with no wind. You'll want a roof over your rig to keep excess snow from causing interference. And I liked an outside temperature of about 25 Farenheit.
I learned a few things about snowflakes not mentioned in the video. A lot of them are broken, especially on windy days. They tend to clump (in the air) when it gets near the freezing/melting point. And they have huge variation in size. Some looked small in my field of view and some didn't fit so almost a ten fold difference in "diameter" or a hundred-fold in area. Finally different snowfalls tend to have different snowflake trends in size and shape.

[bernd]

Aah, so it's like that, huh. I understand everything now.

[producedbystrevelli]

So basically every raindrop and snowflake i ate was dust

[alexfx]

Now I'm curious as to what a cristallographer does for a living

[paulmason]

im so glad i decided to follow a thought on how snowflakes form, and WOW they look just like the artwork ive been producing, i started to randomly draw these very similar geometric shapes, incredible similarity, no two of my 150 drawings are the same. i was inspired by looking at one crop circle formation and suddenly found myself doing artwork that i have never done or been taught to do.

[wleon]

There HAS to be a Higher Mind behind all of this. The design of each snowflake tells me that they are made BY design. These miniature pieces of engineering are just breathtaking. The patterns and branches and complex mathematics behind each snowflake tells me that there is a Higher Power involved in their making.

[TheRgordon]

Wow! God is truly an awesome designer. They form just as He designed them to form.

[ayeshaK]

You've just described chemistry in it...but You cannot make it..only ALLAH Almighty has the authority to create such snow flakes with all these tiny details.. no man on this earth can do this.. I feel so proud that I'm his Creator.. and his believer ♥️♥️

[aliciamartinrivas]

We thought this video was awesome because it showed us how snowflakes formed.
Mrs. Rivas' third grade class.

[islamversus]

We will show them Our signs in the universe and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that this ˹Quran˺ is the truth. Is it not enough that your Lord is a Witness over all things?
Quran 41:53

[aresrobinson]

Do the chemistry of tempering chocolate!

[radkobashev]

The most common ones in my country are the standard dendrite snowflakes, a bit more rarer are the broad branch snowflakes, even rarer are the stellar snowflakes, the plate snowflakes is very rare, and the capped column snowflakes are epic.(even rarer than rare)

[suecoulas]

Yes I did and I was in complete awe of how God actually created something like this so intricate and delicate and individual.... Absolutely amazing

[bible_verses_to_add]

People how can God not exist, after waching this. I mean look at how wonderful this universe is, it's impossible for it to be without being created. If God never existed, there would be nothing but chaos, since most of you believe in the big bang, which is obviously a theory.
Most people will believe anything as long as it's not from the bible.

[puchicatsmanga]

To summarize the explanation, It's simply God's creation. 🥰