Snow forms when microscopic water droplets in clouds are attracted to dust particles and freeze. The ice crystals that appear, initially not exceeding 0.1 mm in diameter, fall down and grow as a result of condensation of moisture from the air on them. This produces six-pointed crystalline forms with angles of 60° and 120°.
The astronomer Johannes Kepler first scientifically substantiated the shape of snowflakes in 1611. He published a scientific treatise “On Hexagonal Snowflakes,” in which he examined the wonders of nature from the perspective of rigid geometry.
There is such a variety of snowflakes that it is generally believed that no two snowflakes are alike.
A snowflake weighs 1-3 milligrams.
The white color comes from the air contained in the snowflake. Light of all frequencies is reflected on the boundary surfaces between the crystals and the air and scattered. Snowflakes consist of 95% air, which causes low density and a relatively slow falling speed (0.9 km/h).
In the Eskimo language there are more than 20 words for snow. More than half the world's population has never seen snow, except in photographs.
The largest snowflake recorded was on January 28, 1887, during a snowfall at Fort Keough, Montana, USA; it had a diameter of 15 inches (about 38 cm). Typically, snowflakes are about 5 mm in diameter and weigh 0.004 g.
Snow reflects 95% of solar energy. That is, it may not melt at all under the sun (which is what happens in the mountains). It melts for another reason: in cities dust settles on the snow, in the sun it heats up and because of it the snow melts.
In some high mountain areas, such as California's Sierra Nevada, watermelon snow can be seen in the summer. It is pink in color and has the smell and taste of watermelon. This phenomenon is due to the presence of Chlamydomonas nivalis algae in the snow, which contains the red pigment astaxanthin.
When squeezed, snow makes a sound reminiscent of a squeak (crunch). This sound occurs when walking in the snow, pressing on fresh snow with sled runners, skis, making snowballs, etc.
The creaking of snow can be heard at temperatures below −2 degrees. It is believed that this occurs due to the destruction of crystals.
By the end of winter, the territory of the Northern Hemisphere is covered with a snow cover of 13,500 billion tons.
One day, the wife of the French king Louis XIV, Madame Maintenon, wanted to ride a sleigh in the middle of summer. The next morning, she was given a multi-kilometer “snow” track made of salt and sugar along the roads of Versailles.
Japanese nuclear physicist Ukihiro Nakaya (1900–1962) created his book about snowflakes (“Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial,” published in 1954) and defined a classification scheme for snowflakes, in which he divided them into 41 individual morphological type; He was the first to determine the dependence of the shape of crystals on the temperature and humidity of the environment. hometown scientist Katayamazu there is a Museum of Snow and Ice named after him.
10 to the 24th degree of snowflakes fall per year.
On Mars, both the familiar snow and snow from solid carbon dioxide fall (in addition to the permanent polar caps from regular ice, seasonal caps of carbon dioxide, better known as “dry” ice, regularly form on Mars
Some of us look forward to winter, while others don’t like winter at all, due to cold weather or other reasons. From this article you will learn interesting facts about winter and snow that you hardly knew or heard about, but I am sure that everyone will be interested to know, regardless of whether they like this cold, snowy season or not.
1
Astronomical winter on Earth begins at the time of the winter solstice and lasts until the spring equinox, that is, in the Northern Hemisphere of the planet - from December 22 to March 21, at Southern Hemisphere- from June 22 to September 21.
Calendar winter lasts 3 months - in the Northern Hemisphere it is December, January and February, and in the Southern Hemisphere it is June, July and August. According to climatologists, winter begins after the average daily air temperature drops below 0 ºС.
Fact- 2 Low temperature record
In winter, records are set for the lowest temperatures. Thus, the coldest time on Earth was on December 8, 2013 - in Antarctica, an unusual temperature of -91.2 ºС was recorded at a Japanese station.
Fact- 3 Winter is...
Winter is not only the name of the season. So, in Russia there is a city called Zima ( Irkutsk region). A river with the same name flows here.
Fact- 4
Snowflakes in winter are amazing because simple matter can self-organize into complex matter. You will never find two snowflakes alike.
And the number of snowflakes is greater than that of atoms in the entire visible universe.
Fact- 5
Astronomer John Kepler explained the shape of snowflakes as God's will. And the Japanese scientist Nakaya Ukichiro believed that snowflakes are unknown hieroglyphs written in the heavens.
By the way, it was he who created the first classification of these mysterious hieroglyphs. In honor of Nakai, they even opened a Japanese snowflake museum.
Fact- 6 Classification of snowflakes
In 1951, an international commission was created to study snow and ice. Which introduced the classification of snowflake crystal shapes.
All of them are divided into 7 types: classic needles, stars, regular columns, columns with tips, among them there are even spatial dendrites, plates, and of course, among other regular geometric shapes there are snowflakes irregular shape.
Fact- 7
On April 30, 1944, snow was falling in the capital of our Motherland - military Moscow. The huge snowflakes were the size of an average person's palm. They were shaped like ostrich feathers.
But the biggest snowflake reached a size of 38 cm and a thickness of 20 cm. The record-breaking snowflake was found on January 28, 1887 during a snowfall in the USA.
Fact- 8
Did you know that snowflakes can “sing”? When they enter water or bodies of water, they emit a high-frequency sound. A person is not able to hear it, but fish, according to experts, do not like it!
Fact- 9 Snow is not only white
The snow itself is not only white, but high in Antarctica it turns red, pink, and even purple.
And it's called watermelon snow. This is because of the algae that live in it - they are called snow chlamydomonas.
Fact- 10
Oddly enough, snowflakes are 95% air. This can explain the fragility of the snowflake and the low speed of its fall.
Fact- 11
Snow is edible, everyone knows this from childhood. True, you will spend more energy while eating than calories you will ultimately receive.
Fact- 12
In the Far North, the snow can be so hard that it rings like iron if you hit it.
Fact- 13
Winter is the darkest month of the year, since in December the maximum daylight hours are reduced. Surprisingly, it is at this time that the Earth is closest to the Sun.
Fact- 14 Fear of cold
In psychology there is a term " kionophobia", which refers to a rare phobia - fear of cold, snow and ice. People suffering from it cannot live in countries where there are snowy winters, so they move to the southern regions.
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In fact, it is colorless, and the white color is just an optical illusion. Snowflakes are complex-shaped ice crystals with many faces in which light is refracted and re-reflected many times. If an object reflects the entire spectrum of light falling on it, we perceive it as white. And if you make a dent in a snowdrift on a sunny day, the snow appears green-yellow. When it’s cloudy, it looks blue, and when there’s a bright red sunset in the sky, it looks pink.
2. Identical snowflakes exist
There is a myth that no two snowflakes are alike. But physicist Kenneth G. Libbrecht from the California Institute of Technology proved the opposite. He conducted an experiment and found that under conditions of the same temperature and humidity, “identical twins” of snowflakes are formed. In nature, their difference is due to movement: as they fall to the ground, the symmetry and outlines of their rays change.
3. Snowflakes can be gigantic
The average snowflake has a diameter of 5 mm and weighs about 0.004 g. However, under favorable conditions, snow crystals can adhere to each other into relatively stable structures and form snow flakes. The largest snowflake was 38 cm in diameter. It formed in the city of Fort Keough, Montana, in 1887.
4. Japan has a snowflake museum
It was discovered on the island of Hokkaido by scientist Nakaya Ukichiro. The halls of this unique museum were located in snow caves. In addition to the exhibition halls, where you can look at macro photographs of snowflakes and learn interesting facts about snow, the museum has a concert hall where famous artists regularly perform.
5. There are 180 words for snow
It was previously believed that the Eskimo language had the most words for snow and ice. But now linguists have given the palm to the Sami living in the north of Scandinavia: their language has at least 180 words for these concepts.
6. Houses made of snow are very warm
Snow is an excellent heat insulator. Snow huts, igloos, the winter homes of the Eskimos, can be considered one of the most energy efficient buildings. When it is -45 °C outside, the temperature in the igloo can reach +15 °C. In this case, the inhabitants of the hut themselves serve as a natural source of heat.
7. There is a phobia of snow
It's called chionophobia. This is a fear of snow or blizzards. In its acute form, chionophobia is quite rare and is a consequence of frostbite, injury or accidents associated with snow or ice. But certain elements of chionophobia can be observed in quite healthy people. For example, during snowfalls a person may experience excessive anxiety, fearing accidents or accidents.
It's summer now! And there seemed to be no talk about snow, but still I want to tell you interesting facts about this climatic phenomenon.
What is snow?
Snow is nothing more than frozen water. However, in this case, why doesn’t it look like ice? The fact is that snowflakes are actually made up of small ice crystals, and because light reflects off their many edges, the snowflakes appear white rather than transparent. Snow forms when water vapor in the atmosphere freezes. First, tiny crystals appear, clean and transparent. Following air currents, they move through the air in all directions. Gradually, these crystals “stick” to each other until there are a hundred or even more of them. When the size of the frozen ice floes turns out to be large enough, they begin to slowly sink to the ground. We call these accumulations of ice floes snowflakes.
1. As you know, snow does not fall all over the globe, because nature took care of the temperature conditions of some countries. This is why most of the people who inhabit our planet have never seen snow in their lives. Maybe from a photograph, or maybe you’ve visited snowy countries.
2. Of all the snow that has fallen on the entire globe, there is not a single snowflake that has a repeating structure!
3. Snowflakes are 95% air. This is why they fall very slowly, at a speed of 0.9 km/hour.
4. Why is snow white? Because snow has air in its structure. In this case, all kinds of light rays are simply reflected from the boundary of ice crystals with air and scattered.
But there have been cases in history when snow of a different color fell. For example, black snow fell in Switzerland in 1969, just in time for Christmas, and in 1955 green snow fell in California. The saddest thing in this story is that the residents who tasted this snow died soon, and those who took the green snow in their hands received severe itching and a rash on their hands. This is probably why we are forbidden to eat yellow snow.
But the snow is not so white everywhere. For example, in Antarctica and high mountains, snow of pink, purple, red and yellowish-brown colors is found. This is facilitated by creatures that live in the snow and are called Chlamydomonas snow.
5. 1 cm of snow cover, which covers our Earth during the winter, provides a full 25-35 cubic meters of water per 1 hectare of area. Perhaps people will soon come up with some devices for collecting snow and using it in the future. Somewhere in industry, or as process water for irrigating fields, flushing in public toilets, etc. And so on. Or maybe they will learn to separate water and chemicals in the snow.
6. When a snowflake falls into the water, it emits a high-frequency sound that is not detected by humans, but according to scientists, the fish population of the river really does not like it.
7. Snow, under normal conditions, melts at a temperature of 0 degrees Celsius. However, a significant amount of snow can evaporate at sub-zero temperatures without being converted into liquid phase. This process occurs when the sun's rays hit the snow.
8. In the winter season, snow reflects up to 90% of the sun's rays from the Earth's surface, directing them back into space. Thus, preventing the Earth from warming up.
9. At approximately temperatures below -2-5 degrees Celsius, a creaking sound is heard when walking in the snow. And the colder the temperature, the stronger this creaking is heard. And there are two reasons for this: firstly, the sound appears when snow crystals break, and secondly, when the crystals slide against each other under the pressure that you create.
10. The largest snowflake in the entire world has been witnessed in history. During a snowfall in 1987 on January 28 in Fort Coy (Montana, USA), a snowflake found had a diameter of 38 cm. And this despite the fact that ordinary snowflakes have an average diameter of 5 mm.
Snow is an air-water formation that falls in the form of precipitation as a result of condensation and hardening processes in the upper layers of the atmosphere. Depending on the condensation conditions, the size, shape and structure of snowflakes may vary. In general, snow, when it falls at least a few times during the winter, provides the important function of storing moisture for plants to return to growth when spring arrives. 
With the advent of the technical ability to study the structure of snowflakes, more than 10 different forms that were similar to each other within a group of their forms were identified. These include: lamellar, star-shaped and volumetric formations dendritic structure, needle-like, columnar and irregular shapes. 
The white color of snow is due to the presence of air in its composition.
Since air plays a predominant role in the composition of snow, light falling on the surface of ice crystals is scattered in different directions. Light in them can propagate in all directions, regardless of the spectral wavelength. 
Large amounts of snow can lead to flooding and provoke dangerous high-speed landslides in mountainous conditions.
The airy composition of snow described above does not mean that it is harmless, especially in large quantities. For example, snow cover on the surface of a hectare can produce about 30 m 3 of water when melting, which can threaten flooding of low-lying areas of the relief. On the other hand, exposure to snow in mountainous conditions is deadly, where sometimes a few snowflakes falling on the surface with insufficient critical mass can trigger a snowfall. The danger of landslides is their high speed, which is in the range of 250-400 km/h.
Scientists spent 26 billion on studying the process of snowflake formation
Not having sufficient means and methods to study the process of formation of snow crystals, scientists spent 26 400 000$ . As a result, they found out a rather simple fact, which is that snow crystals are formed from steam that evaporates from the surface of the earth, skipping the rain phase, under conditions of condensation and low temperatures.
Under the influence of snow, the Earth may be left without solar heat
Snow, can only perceive 5-10% solar heat, the remaining 90-95% are reflected back. In the conditions of a nuclear winter, if it occurs, humanity risks losing not only heat in places where the surface is covered with snow, but also food and oxygen produced by plants.
There is a snowflake museum in Japan
The Japanese are distinguished by their reverent attitude towards snow and snowflakes, believing that on their islands they are special, different from everyone else in the world. The prerequisite for the founding of the snowflake museum on the island of Hokkaido was the publication in 1954 of a book about the types of snowflakes by Ukihiro Nahaya. 
The creaking of snow appears only in frosty weather
Indeed, the creaking of snow, which is a crunching sound, is formed when many small needles of crystals are exposed and occurs exclusively in the temperature range below -3°C. At a temperature below the specified temperature by 3 degrees, the noise produced has a high-frequency characteristic.
The diameter of the crystals is extremely small
Most snowflakes in diameter fluctuate within a certain range around 5mm, but in 1987, crystals with a diameter of 38mm were recorded in the American state of Montana. 
History has recorded snow falling in various shades, from black to pink.
On Christmas Eve 1963, black snow fell on one piece of land. Scientists associated this fact with the high pollution of the atmosphere in this area, as a result of which the snow absorbed soot when passing to the ground.
Snow is edible
It is possible to eat snow, but its use requires several times more than other products. It should also be noted that the amount of energy spent on its consumption is many times greater than the calorie content of the product.
- There is a Snow Festival. Indeed, such a day exists because, in addition to its aesthetic function, snow often plays an important role in agriculture. International Snow Day is celebrated January 19.
- A huge amount of snow falls during the winter. Every year, according to average indicators, about septillion snowflakes fall on Earth in the form of precipitation. A septillion is a number containing 24 zeros after one.
- The weight of a snowflake is very small. The average weight of an ordinary snowflake is 1 mg, but for larger samples of irregular shape, which have taken on ice particles as they move towards the ground, it can be 2-3 mg.
- The main component of snowflakes is air, which causes their low speed. Typically, they consist of 90-95% air, and since air has a low density, this causes their low speed of movement towards the ground. On average it is about 0.9-1 km/h.
- A cubic meter of snow contains millions of snowflakes. A volume of 1 m 3 of snow can contain up to three and a half hundred million snowflakes, each of which has a unique structure.
- There are people who have never seen snow in their lives. In fact, the number of such people is large and constitutes approximately half of the world's population.
- There are methods for artificially producing snow. After studying the mechanism of snowflake formation, the idea of creating snow in laboratory conditions became possible and came to life.
- Snow also exists on other planets and satellites. Research has confirmed that on Mars snow falls in the form of carbon dioxide, while on Titan it consists of methane.