What's the difference between snow grains and snowflakes?

The difference between snow grains and snowflakes lies in the different formation process. Snow particles are formed by melting and solidifying in the process of falling after snow is formed. Snow comes first, then snow grains. Snow particles appear in winter, and wet airflow will instantly crystallize into snowflakes when it meets the cold current in the air. In the process of falling, the high-altitude temperature rises again, and the snow melts slightly and becomes snow particles.

Snowflake, also known as silver millet, jade dragon and jade dust, is a kind of crystal, which is formed by solid precipitation of condensed water vapor in the sky. Its structure changes with the change of temperature, mostly hexagonal, like a flower. There are many shapes of snowflakes, and each snowflake is an extremely beautiful pattern, which even many artists admire.

Snowflakes are mostly hexagonal, because snowflakes belong to hexagonal system. There are two main shapes of small ice crystals of snowflake embryos in clouds. One is hexagonal, slender and called columnar crystal, but sometimes its two ends are pointed and look like needles, called acicular crystal. The other is a hexagonal flake, just like a flake cut from a hexagonal pencil, called a flake crystal.