User:Joayer/sandbox

Idea to combine the three different classification article sections from

= Proposed consolidation =
 * Snow article
 * Snowflake article
 * Classification of snow article

Snowflakes form in a wide variety of intricate shapes. Although nearly-identical snowflakes have been made in a laboratory, they are unlikely to be found in nature. Initial attempts to find identical snowflakes by photographing thousands of them with a microscope from 1885 onward by Wilson Alwyn Bentley found the wide variety of snowflakes that are known about today.

Ukichiro Nakaya developed a crystal morphology diagram, relating crystal shape to the temperature and moisture conditions under which they formed. Nakaya also discovered that shape is additionally influenced by whether the vapour pressure is above or below saturation. Below saturation, crystals trend more towards solid and compact. Under supersaturated conditions, shapes trend towards lacy, delicate, and ornate.

A summary of his findings is shown in the table below.

Depending on the atmospheric conditions and ice nuclei, more complex growth patterns also form side-planes, bullet-rosettes, and planar types. For instance, if a crystal started forming in a column growth regime (at around −5 °C/23 °F) and then falls into the warmer plate-like regime, plate or dendritic crystals sprout at the end of the column, producing so-called "capped columns".

Magono and Lee devised a classification of freshly formed snow crystals that includes 80 distinct shapes. The main categories are:

The International Classification for Seasonal Snow on the Ground describes snow crystal classification, once deposited on the ground, including grain shape and grain size. The system also characterizes the snowpack, as the individual crystals metamorphize and coalesce.