Why does snow fall instead of rain?
Temperature's Call
Why does snow fall instead of rain?
Rain or snow — it's the same water falling from the sky. So why does one storm drop cold little crystals while another dumps wet drops? The answer lives in a simple rule: temperature decides everything.
Up in the clouds, water vapor clings to tiny dust specks and freezes into ice crystals — the baby version of snowflakes. This happens even in summer rainclouds, miles above your head where the air is freezing cold. Every raindrop starts as ice.
