Snow Crystals

A snow crystal is a single ice crystal. Snowflakes are a collection of snow crystals. The study of snow crystals is a very interesting pursuit.

The Caltech web site Snow Crystals is a good place to begin our investigation. Start by viewing some of the stunning photos of snow crystals in the gallery. Like to try photographing snow crystals? You will find information here to help you do exactly that, as well as methods for preserving snow crystals on slides.

Ready to learn more? Great! Snow crystals exhibit two basic forms -- plate-like or column-like crystals. Schemes to classify snow crystals are based on these two fundamental forms. Three schemes are illustrated on the web site International Commission on Snow and Ice (1951), Nakaya's classification and Mango and Lee (1966). Now if you want to delve more deeply into the topic, you can click on "snowflake physics." This material is more scientific in nature and covers some aspects of crystal physics and how it can be applied to the growth of snow crystals.

Ever wonder where the phase "no two snowflakes are alike" came from? Well, wonder no more. Snowflake Bentley, a.k.a. Wilson A. Bentley (1865-1931), photographed over 5000 snowflakes during his lifetime and never found two the same. This web site is dedicated to his work and features samples of his photos. Bentley attached a microscope to his bellows camera to take "photomicrographs" of snow crystals. If you want to see pictures of snow crystals taken with a low-temperature scanning electron microscope (LT-SEM), visit Selected Snow Crystals.

A great site to visit if you have kids is Snow Activities. You can grow your own snowflakes or catch and preserve the real thing. Check out Snowflake Designer to make your own snowflakes (Macromedia Flash required) or Snowflakes to learn how to make a snowflake from paper.

Do you know how snow crystals get their shape? They are six-sided or hexagonal. Visit Snow Explained and view the short animation. While you are there, play the other games just for fun (Macromedia Flash required). What factors contribute to the formation of a particular shape? Snow Crystals discusses what atmospheric conditions (temperature and humidity) are necessary for the formation of various snow crystal types. To see this illustrated in an interactive program (and to have some fun), click over to Sno' Kiddin'? from the Whyfiles. About halfway down the page there is a Java applet that illustrates what shape of snow crystal forms at what temperature. Neat!.

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