What are snowflakes? How do they form and what do they consist of?

Tiny ice crystals of intricate unique shapes, which generously give us every winter - that's what snowflakes are. The mystery of this amazing miracle of nature has long attracted inquisitive minds. How this phenomenon arises, which laws are subject to strict harmony of their forms and why they are so diverse - these questions will try to answer this article.

History of the study of snowflakes

Scientists have long been trying to find out what snowflakes are, to explain the complex and harmonious structure of their structure. Their very first drawings from life were made by the Swiss explorer Mangus in 1555.

In the beginning of the XVII century, the German scientist Johannes Kepler found out that almost all snowflakes are hexagonal crystals. He published a scientific paper on this subject.

In 1635-1637, the question of what snowflakes were, interested the French mathematician Rene Descartes. He described them as similar to lilies, roses and wheels with six prongs. He published his own sketches, on which one can see even snowflakes with eight or twelve denticles, which are very rare in nature.

In 1885, the American scientist Wilson Bentley photographed a snow crystal under a microscope for the first time. For almost fifty years his collection amounted to about 5000 of these photographs.

Japanese Nakaya Ukithiro, a scientist-physicist, was seriously studying the formation of snowflakes and why they are all so different in the 30s of the 20th century. He compiled their first scientific classification, and also invented a mechanism for making artificial snow. The name of this scientist is the Museum of Snow and Ice, located in Japan on the island of Hokkaido.

In 1955, Russian A. Zamorsky divided snowflakes into nine classes, as well as 48 species. Among them - "hedgehogs", "needles", "plates", "columns", "cufflinks" and others.

American Kenneth Liebrecht, who lives in our days, compiled a "Full reference book of snowflakes". In his laboratory, snow crystals are grown artificially, they can even be given a design form.

How are snowflakes formed

Snowflakes are formed from water vapor. Tiny droplets at low temperature and humidity condense high in the clouds. They encounter dust particles that are hovering in the air, and join them. Thus, what snowflakes are composed of are dust particles (crystal nuclei) and small ice particles, gradually growing around each of them.

As the future snowflake descends to the ground, all the new ice crystals join it, while retaining its distinctly hexagonal shape. The convex sections of the crystal grow faster.

Faced with their supercooled droplets, the snowflake continues to grow. Having reached the critical mass, it falls down - to the ground.

Variety of snowflakes

The way in which snowflakes are formed and how they grow, affects countless factors. The most significant of these is the alternation of air temperature in different layers of the atmosphere, which the snow crystals are left to pass.

In the air, snowflakes are constantly changing. In cold zones, the growth of crystals is accelerated, they grow considerably in length. Wherever warmer air reigns, their "rays" practically do not lengthen, but begin to grow in breadth. Knowing what snowflakes are, you can easily explain why, depending on weather conditions in a particular area, the type of snow characteristic for it usually falls out.

So, in the Baltics and central Russia in windless weather, snow often goes in the form of large "fluffy" flakes, having a complex branched shape. With strong gusts of wind and low temperatures, snowflakes collide with each other, crumble and fall in the form of small debris. If forty-degree colds hit, the nascent ice crystals will cover the earth with "diamond dust". And in the center of Yakutia in frosty weather, thin "needles" of ice often fall out.

When the snow falls

Snow is formed when the air temperature is below two degrees of heat. The opinion that for this purpose the column of the thermometer must necessarily fall below zero is a myth. In this case, the already fallen snow begins to melt away. However, in the process of this, the temperature of the air in the places where there are precipitation is surely lowered.

The heaviest snow flakes fall in the range from zero to two degrees. But if the temperature starts to rise higher, then, what snowflakes are composed of - small ice crystals, will inexorably melt. In this case, most likely, you should wait for the fall of wet snow, and even rain.