Snowflakes, no two are ever the same !

Here in the UK the New Year was the warmest on record, definitely no snow in sight! Now as a few January days have passed it is likely temperatures will drop and perhaps for some areas snow will be on the way. I know the grandchildren love it when it snows, but I appreciate many reading this post may not.

But have you ever thought what are snowflakes and snow crystals?

Well, they are basically the same, a crystal is one tiny bit of ice, snowflakes are many snow crystals stuck together. Many of us love to see the first piece of snow in the winter, although we wish it would only stop at the one snowflake.

What exactly are snowflakes?

Snowflakes are not frozen raindrops. Frozen raindrops are known as sleet. Snow crystals are formed when water vapor freezes, which all happens up in the clouds.

Snowflakes are also formed in the clouds, this happens when water droplets freeze and become ice particles. Water vapor in the cloud assembles on the ice particle, causes it to stretch into a basic hexagonal prism and then to shoot branches to create a more difficult and complex shape, once this has happened snowflakes then change even more to make them unique.

Snowflakes shape and symmetry.
The temperature and dampness of the cloud constantly changes, which affects the shape of each snowflake. Although snowflakes can change shape so quickly, the hexagonal symmetry is kept.

Snowflakes can be categorized into six main types, plate (flat), column, stars, dendrite, lacy, needle, and capped column.

When it is extremely cold the snow is very fine and powdery and snowflakes become quite simple in design, usually needle or rod-shaped. When the temperature is near to freezing point (0 degrees Celsius), snowflakes become much larger and a lot more complex in design.

There are 35 main snowflakes that you could recognize from just looking closely at.

No two are ever the same.
It is indeed extremely unlikely that two complex snowflakes will look exactly alike.
It’s so extremely unlikely; in fact, that even if you looked at every one ever made you would not find any exact duplicates.

The worlds biggest snowflake.
According to the Guinness World Records, the largest snowflake in the world was 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick. This was recorded on January 28, 1887 by Matt Coleman at Fort Keogh, Montana. He said that the snowflake was “larger than milk pans”. There was also a measured snowflake found in Berlin on January 10th 1915 but was only around 10 centimetres wide, (almost four inches).

So there you have it, I hope you've enjoyed the read. Snowflakes may be far more unique than you first thought. I wonder, will you be having a closer look next time it starts snowing?

Words above from article here

a snowy scene Lake District UK image from here

On cooler days a bowl of warming soup is very welcome, so I have a nice bowl of parsnip and cauliflower soup for you 😊 For those readers who are living in the Southern Hemisphere and are currently enjoying summer days, you may prefer this Gazpacho Soup

Parsnip and Cauliflower Soup

recipe details here

A variety of articles, and recipe ideas, are within this blog, not all may be suitable for you. If you may have any food allergies, or underlying health issues these must always be taken into account. If you are a diabetic and not sure how certain foods may affect your blood sugars, test is best, i.e. use your meter.

All the best Jan