Formation of Snowflakes

The birth of a snowflake begins when a pollen, dust or dirt comes in contact with a water vapour high in the Earths atmosphere. Due to the low temperature and humid air, the water vapour-coated particle freezes into ice and grows in size until it has reached a critical point. The ice crystal or the bead is relatively warmer compared with its environment. With that in consideration, heat transfer direction is outwards. The heat flow triggers fingers of ice to split into six fingers in radial position. The crystals sixpointedness is determined by the fact that the water molecules which compose the ice crystals are arranged in a hexagonal pattern. At the same time, as it descends from the sky, more water vapour freezes into the ice crystal, making it heavier and enlarging the hexagonal pattern. The process by which ice is split is repeated with the 6 daughter fingers. However, instead of producing six more daughter fingers, only three are generated. This is so because the potential middle ice finger will be growing backwards while the two other potential ice fingers have no available cold air for heat to flow into. Reiteration of this tip-splitting process will further result to a fern-like or dendrite shaped snowflake. Generally, snowflakes occur as six-sided hexagonal crystals because of waters tendency to arrange themselves in such a way that repulsive forces are minimized, frequently producing symmetrical structures. But factors like amount of temperature and moisture affect the finer details of its arrangement. Given a cooler and dry atmosphere, powdery snowflakes with sharper edges are produced. While under warmer conditions, snowflakes grow slowly resulting into smoother and less intricate shapes.

Figure 1.Effects of temperature and humidity on snowflake formation

It is therefore valid to conclude that although snowflakes are not exactly alike, almost all of them have a similar appearance. This similarity is made possible by the snowflakes basic formation process. On the contrary, the fine detail of most of the snowflakes is a result of many variations in clouds, moisture in the atmosphere, temperature, humidity and other factors. Snowflakes travel unique trajectories and are weathered by unique conditions which give them their intricate identity. Sources: http://geology.com/articles/snowflakes/ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.noaa.gov/features/02_monitorin g/snowflakes_2013.html http://earthsky.org/earth/how-do-snowflakes-get-their-shape http://www.geek.com/science/geek-answers-how-do-snowflakes-form-1567903/ http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/science/snowflake/#.Ut1EahD-LIV http://chemistry.about.com/od/moleculescompounds/a/snowflake.htm