#MEwx not as cold with sun, clouds and How snowflakes form
I’ve put up an Ambient WS 5000 weather station where you can view real time weather readings online here https://ambientweather.net/dashboard
This morning we have partly sunny skies with highs in the lower 40s. Winds are light and variable, becoming northwest around 10 mph gusting to 20 mph this afternoon.
Tonight we’ll have mostly clear conditions with lows around 18°F. Winds will be North around 10 mph in the evening, becoming light and variable.
We didn’t receive any rain or snow here over the past 24 hours.
The wind is Northeast between 2.0 MPH and 3.4 MPH.
The Relative pressure is 29.85, the Absolute pressure is 29.65 and rising with a weather graphic indicating sun and a few clouds.
The outdoor temperature is 27.9°F, the dew point is 24.3°F, the wind chill is 27.9°F and the humidity is 86%.
Visibility is 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers with partly cloudy skies.
The UV index is 0 placing the average person at no risk, the solar radiation reading is 27.2W/m2, we have a NEW MOON and is 0.2% illuminated. Sunrise is 6:46 AM, sunset is 4:07 PM, moonrise is 6:16 AM, Moonset is 3:42 PM and we’ll have 9 hours 20 minutes of daylight today.
The moon phase is a NEW MOON, our next Full Moon is on December 7 (Cold Moon), with our next new moon being on XXX.
How do snowflakes form? Thanks to Weather.gov for the following
Q: How are snowflakes formed?
A: A snowflake begins to form when an extremely cold water droplet freezes onto a pollen or dust particle in the sky. This creates an ice crystal. As
the ice crystal falls to the ground, water vapor freezes onto the primary crystal, building new crystals – the six arms of the snowflake.
That’s the short answer.
The more detailed explanation is this:
The ice crystals that make up snowflakes are symmetrical (or patterned) because they reflect the internal order of the crystal’s water molecules as they
arrange themselves in predetermined spaces (known as “crystallization”) to form a six-sided snowflake.
Ultimately, it is the temperature at which a crystal forms — and to a lesser extent the humidity of the air — that determines the basic shape of the ice
crystal. Thus, we see long needle-like crystals at 23 degrees F and very flat plate-like crystals at 5 degrees F.
The intricate shape of a single arm of the snowflake is determined by the atmospheric conditions experienced by entire ice crystal as it falls. A crystal
might begin to grow arms in one manner, and then minutes or even seconds later, slight changes in the surrounding temperature or humidity causes the crystal
to grow in another way. Although the six-sided shape is always maintained, the ice crystal (and its six arms) may branch off in new directions. Because
each arm experiences the same atmospheric conditions, the arms look identical.
Q: So, why are no two snowflakes exactly alike?
A: Well, that’s because individual snowflakes all follow slightly different paths from the sky to the ground —and thus encounter slightly different atmospheric
conditions along the way. Therefore, they all tend to look unique, resembling everything from prisms and needles to the familiar lacy pattern.
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