Crystal Type↕ | Shape↕ | Formation Temp (C)↕ | Humidity↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Stellar dendrite | Six-branched star with side branches | -12 to -18 | High | The classic Christmas card snowflake, most photographed, complex fern-like branches |
Sectored plate | Flat hexagonal plate with ridges | -10 to -22 | Moderate | Hexagonal plates divided into six sectors by prominent ridges |
Simple plate | Thin hexagonal plate | -10 to -22 | Low to moderate | Smooth hexagonal tablets, simplest flat crystal form |
Stellar plate | Plate with six short arms | -10 to -20 | Moderate | Transitional between plates and dendrites, six stubby branches on a plate |
Hollow column | Hexagonal prism with hollow ends | -5 to -10 | Moderate | Pencil-shaped with conical hollows in the ends, common at moderate cold |
Solid column | Short hexagonal prism | -5 to -10 | Low | Short stubby pillars of ice, sometimes too small to see without magnification |
Needle | Long thin slender columns | -5 to -10 | High | Long thin ice needles, form at specific narrow temperature range |
Capped column | Column with plates on each end | Variable (columns then plates) | Variable | Snowflake that falls through two temperature zones, grows columns then caps with plates |
Fernlike stellar dendrite | Elaborate fern-branched star | -15 | Very high | Largest snowflakes, up to 10mm+, most intricate branching, the best for photography |
Diamond dust | Tiny prisms | -30 and below | Low | Microscopic crystals in polar air, create sundogs and halos in sunlight |
Triangular crystal | Truncated triangular plate | -2 | Variable | Rare three-fold symmetric snowflakes, form under specific aerodynamic conditions |
Twelve-branched snowflake | Two stellar crystals fused | Variable | Variable | Two crystals that collide mid-air and grow together at 30 degrees |
Rimed crystal | Crystal covered in frozen droplets | Variable | Supercooled fog | Regular crystals coated with frozen supercooled cloud droplets, heavy and lumpy |
Graupel | Soft hail pellet | Variable | High | Heavily rimed snowflakes that become fully opaque frozen pellets, bounce on impact |
Bullet rosette | Cluster of columns from common center | -30 to -40 | Low | Radial cluster of bullet-shaped columns, common in cirrus clouds |
Irregular crystal | Asymmetric, malformed | Various | Various | Most snow that actually falls, imperfect shapes far outnumber the textbook symmetric ones |
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