Random Thought for Thursday 2/28/13

So last Friday I posted a picture on FB because I had noticed that the snowflakes were more like snowflecks that day -- not round shaped but more like cylindrical rod shaped precipitation.

I couldn't let it go, and it turns out that a little research is giving me some peace:  this is actually a well-known meteorological phenomenon, as described below (numbers in Fahrenheit).

32 - 25:  snow forms as flakes
23:  snow forms as needles
22:  snow forms as hollow columns
10:  snow forms as flakes again
-8:  snow forms as columns again
-30:  snow stops forming at all

[Keep in mind that the chart is in Celsius, so let the pics speak more than the digits on the side.]

Ok -- now I can go back to my day to day activities (until some other random observation distracts me ...)

THERE's AN ONLINE GUIDE TO ALL THINGS SNOW-FLAKY:
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/

THE ORIGINAL SNOWFLAKE GENIUS:
http://www.athropolis.com/arctic-facts/fact-nakaya.htm

SNOW GETTING IN ON THE CROP CIRCLE PHENOMENON:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/6950788/Snow-stories-rare-self-rolling-snow-balls-found-in-UK.html