precipitation falling from clouds in the form of ice crystals

What is Snow?

Everybody loves snow and it's so happy especially when snowy Christmas time comes. But we will help you understand what really snow is.

What is Snow?

Snow is a type of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a massive amount of snowflakes that poured from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a grainy material. It is soft structure unless packed by external pressure. Snowflakes come in different kinds of size and shape. Graupel is a type of snow in the form of a ball due to melting and refreezing rather than flakes.

The process of precipitating snow is called snowfall. Snowfall tends to form within regions of upward motion of air around a type of low-pressure system known as an extratropical cyclone. Snow can fall poleward of their associated warm fronts and within their comma head precipitation patterns, which is called such due to its comma-like shape of the cloud and precipitation pattern around the poleward and west sides of extratropical cyclones. Where relatively warm water bodies are present, for example due to water evaporation from lakes, lake-effect snowfall becomes a concern downwind of the warm lakes within the cold cyclonic flow around the backside of extratropical cyclones. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy. Thundersnow is possible within a cyclone's comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy snow is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation, if the atmosphere is cold enough.