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snowflake
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thumb|upright=1.5|Macro photography of a natural snowflake A snowflake is a single ice crystal that is large enough to fall through the Earth's atmosphere as snow. Snow appears white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is because the many small crystal facets of the snowflakes scatter the sunlight between them.
A snowflake is a single ice crystal that grows large enough to fall through the atmosphere as snow. Snowflakes appear white because their many small crystal surfaces scatter sunlight, even though the ice itself is clear.
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13 sectionsContents
- Formation
- Nucleus
- Growth
- Appearance
- Color
- Shape
- Classification
- Use as a symbol
- Gallery
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|upright=1.5|Macro photography of a natural snowflake A snowflake is a single ice crystal that is large enough to fall through the Earth's atmosphere as snow. Snow appears white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is because the many small crystal facets of the snowflakes scatter the sunlight between them.
Each flake begins by forming around a tiny particle, called its nucleus, accumulating water droplets, which freeze and slowly form a crystal. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, and possibly combines with other snowflakes. Because of this, snowflakes tend to look very different from one another. However, they may be categorized in eight broad classifications and at least 80 individual variants. The main constituent shapes for ice crystals, from which combinations may occur, are needle, column, plate, and rime.