why do snowflakes form in the patterns that they do?
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It is a very complicated topic that can be explained in various levels of detail. It boils down to ice being a crystal with a hexagonal shape though. As a result ice forms in hexagonal shapes. Of course snow flakes come in many different shapes. How they form exactly and what they look like depends on different factors like humidity, temperature, saturation, etc.
I highly recommend watching this video on snowflakes by Veritasium: [Why are snowflakes like this? – Veritasium](https://youtu.be/ao2Jfm35XeE)
If you are only interested in the physics how a snowflake forms and how it gains its shape I recommend skipping to 5:56.
The hexagonal shape that snowflakes form into is because **hexagons are a highly efficient shape.** [They are the best shape for filling up something with equal size units, while not wasting space](https://www.labroots.com/trending/videos/10939/ever-wonder-why-there-are-so-many-hexagons-in-nature#:~:text=Well%2C%20as%20it%20turns%20out,of%20its%20120%2Ddegree%20angles). You see lots of hexagons in nature for this reason — for instance, honeycomb.
**As for the patterns of the “branches” of a snowflake — it’s because they are formed while falling. They are exposed to varying temperatures, humidity levels, and wind patterns as they fall.** Each of those elements impacts how the branch crystallizes.
Imagine that you have a ball of dough, or clay, or chocolate — liquidy but in the process of drying. The environment will change how it dries. If you put it in a really really hot room, it will get melty and flatter. If you put it in a really cold room, it will stay round. If you blow on it with a leaf blower, it will splatter all around.
Well, the water molecules that make up a snowflake go through the process of _crystallizing_ as they fall through the air. Each “branch” of the hexagonal snowflake is like the substance in the example.
One second, the air might blow on the water in a certain way, or make it really really cold, or a bit warmer… and so you end up with crazy complex, unpredictable patterns.
Think of the snowflake as a tiny floating sticky square in the sky. That’s how it looks before it’s born. A split second later the wind blows a certain way and sticky dust comes by to stick itself to the 4 corners of the square. Now it’s starting to grow into a +. Another second later an even bigger gust comes by with more dust, and now each side of the + gets thicker, looking like a ☩. This repeats on and on– because it’s tiny, each corner of the square experiences the same exact conditions, growing thicker or thinner, as it’s being born. That’s why it’s symmetrical. Other squares nearby feel slightly different conditions, so they look different.
Now instead of a square this is actually a bunch of atoms that form a 6 sided hexagon shape. And instead of it gathering dust, think of it as collecting ice (freezing) over time.
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