For people in many parts of the world at this time of the year, snow is something they deal every day. They can use the snow to build with or to help them get around.

Snow is made up of snowflakes-but the flakes are not all the same. The snow crystals are formed in the clouds when the clouds are at freezing temperature or colder. The snowflakes are made up of different shapes, depending on the temperature of the cloud when they form.

A snowflake is either a single ice crystal or an aggregation of ice crystals which falls through the Earth’s atmosphere. They begin as snow crystals which develop when microscopic supercoold cloud droplets freeze. Snowflakes come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity regimes, such that individual snowflakes are nearly unique in structure. Snowflakes encapsulated in rime form balls known as graupel. Snowflakes appear white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is due diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the small crystal facets.
THE SNOWFLAKES
 The kind of snow crystals include: star, dendrite, column, plate and needle. Stars are the most common kind of snowflakes, with the largest one recorded measuring more than 20 cm * 30 cm. Needles create a stiff kind of snow, which can cause avalanches.

 Snow can be used to build with by using blocks of packed snow to make an igloo. Today there are even ice hotels that you can stay in where the beds, cups and chairs are all made of ice.

Snow sculpture competitions can be seen all over the world-the largest in the world is the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sclupture Festival-with amazing lifelike and larger-than life-sized carvings of animals, birds, trains, castles and more.



source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake