 As a child, you probably spent many hours crafting paper snowflakes. Just like in nature, each one was as unique as a fingerprint. Your inspiration for these probably came as you watched these delicate masterpieces melt on your tongue. Children's snowflakes are crafted with each snip of the scissors, but Mother Nature has her own way of forming snowflakes. Snow crystals begin with a nucleus. The nucleus is either a few molecules that come together in an ice lattice formation or can be particles in the air such as dust. Microscopic supercooled cloud droplets then freeze around this nucleus. Once the initial droplet freezes, the snowflake begins to grow as it moves through the clouds. Single crystal snowflakes often exhibit six-sided symmetry. This is because the initial ice structure is six-fold and the arms grow from each of these points. Snowflakes are a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and it is often said that no two snowflakes are alike. Although this is possible, it is highly unlikely because the snowflake experiences many changes in temperature and humidity as it grows and falls to the earth. Although each individual snowflake is relatively small, their accumulation can be quite impressive. From the University of Wyoming Extension, I'm Mae Smith, Exploring the Nature of Wyoming.