HowSnowForms

• published: 30 Jan 2015
• views: 32

How does snow form? Snow. So pretty, and such a pain in the hind end all at the same time. So how does snow form? Through something called the Bergeron Process - no. not that Bergeron - the Swedish meteorologist. Clouds are made up of supercooled water droplets. These water droplets are colder than freezing because pure water won't freeze until minus 40 or unless it has something to latch onto like dust or dirt. In the clouds, those little bits of dust and dirt are called ice nuclei. The water freezes onto these particles and forms ice crystals. The ice crystals continue to bump into more supercooled water droplets. As these fledgling ice crystals continue to grow, full-blown snowflakes are eventually formed - this process is called accretion. Eventually, the snowflakes become too large to remain suspended in the cloud, and they fall to the earth. The size and structure of these snowflakes has everything to do with temperature and humidity in which the flakes formed, but you may notice all of them are hexagonal, or six sided, regardless. This has to do with the atomic structure of water - the two hydrogen atoms and single oxygen. If enough of these delicate six-sided crystals fall to earth, it can be enough to nearly break your back while you're clearing off the driveway - or build a snowman. It's all how you look at it. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel. Find Storm Shield elsewhere on the internet: http://www.stormshieldapp.com http://www.facebook.com/stormshieldapp http://twitter.com/StormShieldApp Download the Storm Shield App: iPhone: http://bit.ly/stormshieldapp-ios30 Android: http://bit.ly/stormshieldapp-android