EarthSky | Are 2 snowflakes ever the same?


View larger at EarthSky Community Photos. | Sheryl R Garrison in Southern Alberta, Canada, captured this beautiful closeup picture of a snowflake on November 9, 2022. She stated: “Each winter I attempt to {photograph} snowflakes in honor of Wilson (Snowflake) Bentley, the primary particular person to {photograph} a single ice crystal in 1885. Whereas he would seize them on black velvet, I get pleasure from attempting to find them on pure surfaces. This snowflake was photographed on a raspberry leaf. The temperature was -18 C.” Thanks, Sheryl!

Snowflakes are available all totally different shapes

Snowflakes are crystals. Certainly, you possibly can see them in many alternative shapes when you allow them to fall on a black floor and take a look at them with a magnifying glass.

However, not all snowflakes are the lacy or star-type snowflakes we get pleasure from in photos. The truth is, a variety of various basic shapes type at totally different temperatures, so the type of snowflake relies on the temperature of the cloud through which it fashioned. For instance, comparatively heat clouds yield lacy or starry snowflakes. Then again, very chilly clouds yield snowflakes often known as “columns.”

The truth is, we’ve all heard that no two snowflakes are alike, and that’s true of the star-shaped ones.

Then again, column-type snowflakes have easy, stable prism shapes – a lot as when you minimize a piece out of a lead pencil. Whereas the ratio of their size to thickness can fluctuate, column-type snowflakes don’t have a sophisticated construction. Many are very a lot alike.

By the best way, even these column snowflakes aren’t similar if you look intently – on the stage of the snowflake’s molecules.

A couple of years again, we talked to Charles Knight on the Nationwide Middle for Atmospheric Analysis in Boulder, Colorado. And he stated:

I don’t know why individuals decide on snowflakes; are any two geraniums alike? Or kittens, or mountains or asteroids?

Available now! 2023 EarthSky lunar calendar. A unique and beautiful poster-sized calendar showing phases of the moon every night of the year! Makes a great gift.

Backside line: Not all snowflakes are the attractive lacy or star formed snowflakes we see in photos, and no two of them are alike. Some are primary shapes often known as columns. All of it relies on the temperature of the cloud the place they fashioned.

Read more: Michael Peres on how to photograph snowflakes



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