On the Growth of Snowflakes

As a result of observations on snowflakes on the ground using the Replica and filterpaper methods, it was found that there was a relation between the largest size of a snowflake on the ground and its growth region. That is, the deeper the depth of the growth region, the larger the size of a snowflake on the ground. The growth region was defined as the depth of an air layer from -10 to 0°C and the depth of the layer was determined from data obtained by radiosonde.Space density of snowflakes about 2 cm in the largest size corresponds to the concentration of approximately several ten thousands single crystals per cubic meter.Observation of snowflakes at two different altitudes suggested that the decrease in concentration of single crystals at the lower point might be considered as the increase in size of snowflakes at the same point.A simple calculation of snowflake growth was compared with the observations.