{"id":266660,"date":"2024-12-13T18:17:35","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T18:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/13\/how-a-plan-to-make-the-worlds-largest-snowflake-was-humbled-by-nature\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:10:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:10:03","slug":"how-a-plan-to-make-the-worlds-largest-snowflake-was-humbled-by-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/13\/how-a-plan-to-make-the-worlds-largest-snowflake-was-humbled-by-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"How a plan to make the world’s largest snowflake was humbled by nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In London, where I live, you can forget about a white Christmas. The best I can hope for is a pitiful flurry of flakes. So, this year, I am on a mission to create my own snow. And not just any snow: for maximum festive impact, I want to make the world\u2019s largest snowflake.<\/p>\n

It will be a challenge. The Guinness world record stands at 38 centimetres across and 20 centimetres thick<\/a>. This whopper was recorded in Montana in January 1887, when ranch owner Matt Coleman reported seeing snowflakes \u201clarger than milk pans\u201d during a severe storm. Admittedly, some experts are sceptical. \u201cIf this was falling from the sky, they would probably need to be wearing crash helmets,\u201d says glaciologist Douglas Mair at the University of Liverpool, UK. Nevertheless, Guinness World Records insists that contemporary sources support the record.<\/p>\n

But hold on! There\u2019s an addendum: the largest snow crystal measured 10 millimetres. \u201cA snow crystal is a single crystal of ice,\u201d says Ken Libbrecht, who photographed the record-breaker in Ontario, Canada, in December 2003. The textbook image of a Christmas snowflake is actually a perfect snow crystal, he explains, whereas a snowflake is several crystals joined together. So perhaps I could break a record by making the world\u2019s largest snow crystal instead \u2013 how hard can that be? \u201cYou\u2019ll be able to grow some ice crystals from water vapour,\u201d says Libbrecht, who makes \u201cdesigner\u201d snow crystals in his lab at the California Institute of Technology. \u201cBut if you want to make it look like a snow crystal \u2013 I mean an actual symmetrical snow crystal \u2013 that\u2019s a tall order.\u201d Clearly, I will need some help.\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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