Star shaped snowflakes

I was outside hanging with my dogs last week and it was lightly snowing. I looked a little closer at these little flakes and noticed that hundreds of them were in the shape of a six sided star. Thought I'd pass along some (crappy) images I captured on my cell phone.
Enjoy.

TV scientists tell us no two snow flakes are the same! yeah, right! quite good photos actually, stars quite visible.
Thanks for an unusual post.

Wow...that is cool! The stars are very clear in the pics.

Looks like this isn't the only time it has happened either...found a video online from 2011 where the same type of thing occurred.

a reply to: StoutBroux

How weird!
Some are tiny stars,others big stars.
Must have been a perfect mix of weather conditions for this to occur.

Heres a bit of info,they are a recognised types of flakes apparently:

All snow crystals have six sides. The six-sided shape of the ice crystal is because of the shape and bonding of the water molecules. Basically there are 6 different types of snow crystals: needles, columns, plates, columns capped with plates, dendrites and stars. The type of crystals depends on the amount of humidity and temperature present when they are forming

britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca...

Never heard of them before,cool stuff(pardon the pun).

a reply to: Vasa Croe Cool video. I've never noticed this type of flake before, they were so tiny. I'm in snow country and flakes are usually much larger. The snow was very dry. The ones on my railing were vey thin and evaporated quickly if there was no other snow around them to keep them cold. I kept blowing them off and waited for new ones to capture the perfect one, lol.

Thanks everyone for the looks and replies.

a reply to: StoutBroux

They look like itty bitty Ninja stars.

I'm guessing that there was 'snap freeze' at your location- certain conditions in certain locations can produce peculiar results, but I'd like to think that a thousand little ninjas were throwing icy shurikens at you

in any size, a group of spheres of equal size clustered together will always form a six pointed shape. see for your self. put 7 or more equal sized coins on your desk. surround one coin with all the others. only 6 will fit around the 1. not 5. not 7. simple geometries :p

also after doing this you will have a representation of a carbon atom and a diamond molecule. and carbon nanofiber molecules. theres a reason its so strong

originally posted by: Thecakeisalie
a reply to: StoutBroux

They look like itty bitty Ninja stars.

I'm guessing that there was 'snap freeze' at your location- certain conditions in certain locations can produce peculiar results, but I'd like to think that a thousand little ninjas were throwing icy shurikens at you

That's the weird thing, the weather has been exceptionally warm. Usually this time of year the temps are running anywhere from -35F to 12F. Today it's 40F, the grounds around the area, farmers land, town etc, very little snow and mostly bare land. It's the weirdest winter I've seen around here and I'm concerned about the crop production this coming season. No precipitation and much warmer temps than normal.

Ninja stars is a great description, I thought that also. It's difficult to tell but in the small depths of snow, you can kind of see some Ninja starflakes sticking up like the were thrown from a tiny Ninja into the snow.

Mossad

How odd and amazing! If I hadn't known any better I'd think they're leftover Christmas snow decorations or something

OMG, I saw this happen many years ago, star snowflakes! It was the strangest thing and sooooo cool! Thank you for posting this!

Those are amazing...never seen anything like that before.

originally posted by: haven123
Mossad

Hahahahaha.

Thank you so much for the laugh!

all the stars of the cosmos have a spherical shape , 3 4 5 6 7 or more rays stars only images created by man . on the slopes of mountains the snow melts and freezes in the form of beads and therefore avalanches as bearings, more interesting structure in the form of needles in spring brittle ice floes

All snowflakes have 6 points.
ALL.

originally posted by: mangust69
all the stars of the cosmos have a spherical shape , 3 4 5 6 7 or more rays stars only