Snowflake Trivia

Test your

snowflake

knowledge!

Multiple Choice

True or False: Snowflakes are frozen water.

• True

• False

​Contrary to popular belief, snowflakes aren’t simply frozen water. Frozen water is actually sleet. Snowflakes are formed when water droplets freeze in the clouds, and then are dispersed in snow.

Multiple Choice

All snowflakes are-

• Square

• Hexagon

• Triangular

• Round

​As water vapor condenses on the ice particles, the formation stretches into a hexagonal prism. Branches then shoot off from the center in highly intricate ways, each one is unique and complex. The temperature and moisture of the clouds affect the shape of each snowflake.

Multiple Choice

The biggest snowflake on record was-

• 3 inches

• 8 inches

• 15 inches

• 24 inches

The biggest snowflake ever recorded was in Fort Keogh, Montana. It fell on January 28, 1887, and was 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick. Talk about a big snowflake fact. Matt Coleman, who found it, said it was “larger than milk pans.”

Multiple Choice

As the temperature gets colder, snowflakes get-

• bigger

• smaller

• less visible

• whiter

It’s the cold that determines the ultimate shape. When the temperature is extremely cold, the snow is fine and more powder-like. This keeps the design simpler, typically needle or rod-shape.

Closer to freezing, snowflakes get larger and much more complex in design.

Multiple Choice

True or False: All snowflakes are similar in shape and size.

• True

• False

The designs are so intricate that it is nearly impossible for two snowflakes to be exactly the same. Even if you looked at every snowflake ever made, you wouldn’t find two the exact same.

Multiple Choice

Snowflakes are ___ in color.

• White

• Clear

• Rainbow

• Pearl

While snow looks white, it is actually clear. It only looks white because of how light reflects off of the ice crystals.

Multiple Choice

Snow and ___ help provide most of the world's fresh water.

• rain

• fog

• oceans

• ice

Nearly 80% of the fresh water on earth comes from melted snow and ice. This is what keeps us humans alive and healthy, so we should be more thankful to snowflakes!

Multiple Choice

In Canada, a rare phenomenon happens that turns snowflakes-

• Blue

• Green

• Yellow

• Red

There’s an interesting snowflake phenomenon, it mostly happens in Canada. When conditions are right, algae grows on snowflakes, making them a reddish color.

Multiple Choice

True or False: Snow can produce heat.

• True

• False

There is so much snow at the North and South Pole that it can literally heat space. The snow at either pole acts somewhat like a mirror.

When light from the sun hits the snow, it bounces off and travels back to space, heating it up.

Multiple Choice

Blizzards produce _____ of falling snowflakes.

• hundreds

• millions

• billions

• none- blizzards don't have snow.

When there is heavy snowfall it is called a snowstorm. However, when winds reach 35 miles per hour or more, the storm is called a blizzard. In each storm, billions of snowflakes fall.