Every single snowflake that has ever fallen has had six sides. It’s not random - it’s chemistry. When water molecules freeze into ice, they always bond at angles of 120° to each other. That natural angle forces water crystals to grow in a six-sided shape, like a tiny hexagonal flower.
But while every snowflake starts with that same six-sided base, no two end up looking exactly alike. The reason is the journey. Each snowflake forms high in the atmosphere and drifts slowly toward the ground, passing through different layers of air at different temperatures and humidity along the way. Each tiny change in conditions adds another delicate branch or arm to the crystal. The shape ends up being a frozen record of the exact path the flake fell.
Since no two snowflakes follow exactly the same path, no two end up exactly identical. They all start six-sided. Then physics takes over and turns each one into a one-of-a-kind tiny sculpture.
