# Talk:Snowflake

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 5 October 2020 and 20 November 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Noah.hirshorn, Joayer, UMightyMet, Baudette, Boomersooner16, PaulMcGlynn, IJThomas, KYsnowmaker. Peer reviewers: IJThomas.
Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:34, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Formerly, snowflake dingbat characters were present on this page, but someone has removed them:
❄ ❅ ❆
— Monedula 06:27, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Is this really a disambiguation page? It's half-article? Jobjörn (Talk | contribs) 15:26, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

"he biggest snowflake measured fifteen inches wide and eight inches thick, in 1887, in Montana, United States." source? Doidimais Brasil 01:18, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
I definitely remember reading that in Guinness Book of World Records.  --24.222.149.188 00:21, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Should snowflake redirect to snow since that seems to be the most common usage and the dab goes back to snowflake (disambiguation)? Sonic3KMaster(talk) 00:11, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

If you were to ask random people to think of the what the word "snowflake" means, all of them would choose what this article refers to. Miss Madeline | Talk to Madeline 00:11, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

For once, I was trying not to rock the boat with a new article.  If you think it should be just under snowflake, which does make sense, where would we put the disambig page?  Thegreatdr (talk) 00:57, 15 July 2009 (UTC)
The act has already been done (not be me). Everything else is at snowflake (disambiguation). Miss Madeline | Talk to Madeline 04:59, 15 July 2009 (UTC)
 Done Yes, tell me if there are any problems. Plastikspork (talk) 05:03, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

I'm confused. Can snowflakes be seen with the naked eye? They are two contrary pictures and the information tells me you need a microscope to see it or a magnifier. So how big is it? ¬¬¬¬ NeverWinter  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.207.238.73 (talk) 13:50, 24 June 2013 (UTC) 
Really big ones can. i have :)

                   -Snowflakejournal August 2013  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Snowflakejournal (talk • contribs) 06:01, 25 August 2013 (UTC) 

The article says

A non-aggregated snowflake often exhibits six-fold "radial" symmetry.
Are there other kinds? I don't think I've seen one, and all the examples on the page are six-fold. JöG (talk) 21:21, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

As far as I know, if a snowflake is (approximately) symmetrical at all, then it exhibits (approximate) six-fold symmetry. Never five-fold or seven-fold or any other -fold. But there may be non-symmetric snowflakes, e.g. if a flake is broken and then continues to grow. -Arch dude (talk) 23:55, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
Here you'll find one with 3-fold symmetry and no 6-fold symmetry [[1]] Olli Niemitalo (talk) 20:17, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
How can "often" be reconciled with the figure of 0.1% given at the end of the paragraph?

Is it possible to artificially make snowflakes whose crystal hexagonal patterns resemble that of the natural ones? --Roland 04:31, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

This article seems to avoid discussion of the different shapes that snow crystals can take. It does mention hollow columns in passing, but there are no pictures of these, nor of the unmentioned needles. The other types (dentrites and plates) are not mentioned, even though all the images are of these two shapes. Was this information omitted on purpose, and if so, why? --Aurochs (Talk | Block) 17:03, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

I'm sure we just haven't gotten around to adding it yet.  Here are some useful sources showing how crystal shape depends on temperature and humidity:
A Snowflake Primer
Temperature, humidity shape snow crystals
Snowflake Chemistry - Answers To Common Questions
-- Beland (talk) 18:57, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

I'm no expert but, the opening section of this article, defining a snowflake; "Snowflakes are conglomerations of frozen ice crystals", would seem to me at variance with the article Crystals in the section on Ice;  "A single snowflake is typically a single crystal".
I wonder which is correct?
Also under The section "Formation" in this article we read ; "Because water droplets are so much more numerous than the ice crystals due to their sheer abundance, the crystals are able to grow to hundreds of micrometers or millimeters in size at the expense of the water droplets".
Micrometers or millimeters?.  A micrometer is one thousandth of a millimeter and the single 'crystals' referred would seem to be rather smaller than a millimeter, surely not the size of a football.
Perhaps this article is correct by intilially defining snowflakes as conglomerations of ice crystals, Polycrystalline?  
The phrase "...are much more numerous...due to their sheer abundance", seems, well, like saying something is large because is is big.
I don't wish to be pedantic, but it does get confusing when terms are used inconsistently.
Johnny Cyprus (talk) 13:39, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

An entire paragraph seems to be inside some box and extends horizontally off the screen. I'm not sure what it's supposed to be doing, so don't know how to fix it. 74.128.43.180 (talk) 08:00, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

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While it claims to be about "ice crystals which form snow", this article appears to be exclusively about dendritic snow crystals. It should include other forms of snow "flake", e.g. platelets, needles and columns. See, for example: Ski wax#Snow properties. I regard this to be a major problem with the article to not reflect snow science or to recognize how the different shapes relate to other types of precipitation. User:HopsonRoad 23:07, 25 November 2016 (UTC)
See: The International Classification for Seasonal Snow on the Ground Prepared by the ICSI-UCCS-IACS Working Group on Snow Classification for more definitive, in-depth information. User:HopsonRoad 03:17, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Snowflake macro photography 1.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for July 16, 2023. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2023-07-16. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page.  If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! Aviafanboi (talk) 14:00, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

It has been a while since this article has been reviewed, so I took a look and noticed lots of uncited statements, including entire paragraphs. Should this article go to WP:GAR? Z1720 (talk) 23:44, 27 May 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for your query, Z1720. I see at least one introductory paragraph that summarizes the section that it introduces. This doesn't need citations, because of what follows. Elsewhere, citations cover the content of multiple sentences. If you see an important incited statement, it would be useful to tag it so that I can find the appropriate citation. HopsonRoad (talk) 01:27, 28 May 2025 (UTC)
@HopsonRoad: I have added "citation needed" tags to the article, per the above request. Z1720 (talk) 01:32, 28 May 2025 (UTC)