Snow Crystal

When I picked up the kids from school today, I watched the season's first snowflakes swirl through the air.  Snowflakes have a fascinating design that only God could have made.  Although every snowflake has six points, they come in all different sizes:  some can be as small as a grain of sand (.001 mm) while others can be as large as a milk pan (15 inches) according to a Montana farmer in 1887, documented in the Guinness Book of World Records.  Snowflakes also take on different shapes and patterns:  no two are exactly alike.  Teenager Wilson Bentley identified 80 different shapes of snowflakes depending on the air's temperature and aridity or dampness.  While the snowflakes that fell today melted as soon as they hit the ground, photographer Kenneth Libbrecht was able to capture some snow crystals before they disappeared.  Behold the image below.






Photo courtesy www.athousandandone.com.