How Snowflakes Form: New Video Explains

stellar dendrites, snowflakes, snow crystals, images of snow crystals, what snowflakes look like, snow crystal photographs, what snow looks like, snow flakes pictures, photographing snow crystals, snowflake images — (Image credit: Kenneth G. Libbrecht.)

Snowflakes may come in a dizzying array of shapes and sizes, but they're not so unique — at least not in how they form.

Every snowflake forms in the same way, explains Duke University mechanical engineer Adrian Bejan in a new video. They all start as a bead of ice forming around a small speck of dust in the atmosphere. This ice, counterintuitively, is warmer than the air around it, Bejan explains. Heat flows out from the bead, until it's no longer efficient for the bead to remain a bead. At that point, Bejan says, needles of ice protrude out from the bead, forming the familiar six-armed base for a beautiful crystal of snow.

The uniqueness of each flake is a result of the temperature, humidity and air pressure the flake encounters as it forms. This gorgeous snowflake gallery highlights these one-of-a-kind ice sculptures. Or you can make your own using borax.

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Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.