As defined by Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, snow is “precipitation in the form of white ice crystals formed directly from the water vapor of the air at a temperature of less than 32˚F (0˚C).”¹  This definition will be the primary focus for my examination of snow physics. 

Clouds are the primary source of snow.  Air contains tiny particles of water.  Relative humidity is a measurement of how much water air can hold at a given temperature.  Air is saturated with water at 100 percent humidity.  Clouds form when the air cools and the relative humidity increases above 100 percent.²    Water droplets or ice crystals in clouds are very small having “a diameter of a hundredth of a millimeter.”³  Typically, ice crystals form “9 to 12 kilometers (30,000 to 40,000 feet) above, temperatures cool to -60˚C (-75˚F), a level rarely reached even at the poles.”⁴  Ice forms best when there is already a template to order the molecules such as dust particles or ice that is already present.

            Clouds consist of water droplets, ice crystals, pollen, bacteria, chemicals produced by humans, dust, and fungi to name a few.  The contents of the cloud determine the chemical make-up of the snow that is formed.  These particles become the nuclei of snow.  This can lower the formation temperature to just below freezing “whereas a pure water droplet will remain unfrozen until the temperature falls to between -18 to -31˚C, depending on its size.”⁵  The number of particles in the air capable of becoming a nuclei for snow will increase as temperatures reduce.     

            Snow has the potential to form numerous patterns.   Some of the patterns formed are diamond dust, stellar dendrites, sectored plates, columns and needles, capped columns, triangular crystals, split stars and split plates, twinned crystals, twelve-sided snowflakes and double stars, chandelier crystals, spatial dendrites, and rimed snowflakes.⁶     Each pattern will be created within a different set of parameters.  They are created when specific conditions of humidity, temperature, and air density are met.  This diagram shows the morphology: