A woman in Anhui photographed rare "ice needle" snow. The conditions for its formation are harsh.

According to news on February 2, heavy snow has fallen in many places across the country in the past two days, but a woman in Anhui said that she had seen "ice needle" snow for the first time in more than 30 years of life. Judging from the video he shot, the snowflakes falling on the ground are not the common ice crystal style, but long and thin, like the shape of MSG. So how is this kind of snow formed? Some netizens speculated that it was "freezing rain".

According to meteorologists, the scientific name of the snow in the video is indeed "ice needles", but it is not freezing rain, but special crystals formed when the water vapor conditions are good and the temperature is not too low.

According to reports, snowflakes will take on different shapes under different combinations of temperature and humidity: if the two conditions are suitable, common and standard hexagonal snowflakes will appear;If the temperature is below -5℃ and the humidity is appropriate, needle-like snowflakes will appear; If the temperature is particularly low, columnar and plate-shaped snowflakes are likely to appear.

The conditions for the formation of ice needle snow are relatively harsh. First of all, it needs to meet the temperature conditions, that is, the temperature is lower than -5℃. Under this condition, it must also meet the meteorological conditions of few clouds or blue sky and weak wind, and it must be in the early morning or midnight.

When the above conditions are met, the temperature of the moist air near the ground will continue to decrease as it rises. When the humidity of the air is the same as the saturated humidity of the ice surface,The ice core exerts an influence on the air block, causing the water vapor in the air block to sublimate, collide with each other, and merge together, making the volume larger, thus forming needle-shaped ice crystals that fall downwards., that is, ice needle snow.

In fact, not only Anhui, but also netizens in many places in Henan have recently discovered ice needle snow, which is indeed an eye-opener for many people.