As the song goes, “If you’ve got no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.” Well, unfortunately, most of us do have places to go. Namely work. If it wasn’t for the early morning commutes, no one would hate the snow. Of this I’m convinced. So, let’s just forget about all the driving nonsense for a moment, I guess the shoveling too, and focus on the good stuff. Snow does look absolutely stunning… from the window.
 
You’ve probably heard that each snowflake is wholly unique, nature never repeating its design. I suppose there’s some mathematical possibility that the same snowflake design has happened at least twice by pure chance over the course of the Earth’s 4.5-billion-year life span, but I refuse to allow math to squander the magic of the moment. 

What is a snow flake and how do they form? Well, when temperatures fall below zero degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit in the upper atmosphere, water vapors begin to crystalize. Eventually, these “flakes” become heavy enough they can no longer ignore the pull of gravity and begin plummeting downward.
 


So, is every snow flake its own unique design? Well, yes. That’s because there’s an almost incomprehensible, somewhere short of infinite, number of combinations in the crystallization process. Which means, the math for determining the probability of a repeat design gets so high your calculator spits out an ‘e’ or two then says, “nope.” The closest tangible numeral I was able to find over on the Smithsonian’s website is 10 to the power of 158. That’s 10 to the power of 70 times more atoms than there are in the entire observable universe. Grab your lined paper, you’ll be here all day if your math teacher insists you show your work. As a former math teacher, I can tell you that we always insist you show your work.
 
Interestingly enough, snowflakes almost always have one design feature in common: they’re hexagonal. Which is to say, they always have six sides. The reason for this? Well, that appears to be the shape that two or more water molecules forms naturally when bonding. Since a snowflake is the product of multiple H2O bonds, the snowflake itself remains generally locked into that shape.
 
In a controlled environment, however, scientists have been able to customize their own individual snowflakes. Designer snowflakes, who would have guessed? Caltech physicist Ken Libbrecht uses a specialized atmospheric chamber, which allows him to adjust humidity and temperature to influence or manipulate the growth of water vapor crystals. So, yes, it’s possible to have multiple snowflakes with the same design… but only in a controlled environment. Left to natural processes, flakes are wholly unique.
 

So next time you’re stuck staring out the window at the snow, just remember—each snowflake you see is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. It’s nature’s way of reminding us that even in the coldest moments, there’s a little magic to be found in the smallest details.