14 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | JANUARY 2021
"Understanding the Weather" – A Series by Mel Zeldin, Retired Meteorologist
Now that we're into January and the heart of the winter season,
white-mantled mountains and an occasional event of the fluffy stuff
at lower altitudes here in Beaumont bring images of the beauty
of snow. It is said that no two snowflakes are alike, but you might
wonder how that can be. So, let's take a closer look at snow.
First, let's see how snowflakes form. A snowflake starts its
development as a very tiny ice crystal, forming from very cold water
droplets which freeze onto an extremely tiny dust or pollen particle.
The ice crystals are symmetrically patterned after the predetermined
arrangement of the water molecules consisting of two hydrogen
atoms and one oxygen atom, and this causes a six-sided snowflake
to begin to form. (In some cases, the six-sided snowflake grows in
a pair, resulting in what appears to be a twelve-sided snowflake, as
shown in #3 and #4 of the snowflake photos on this page.)
The Curious Snowf lake
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3 4
2
