Aerodynamic Studies of Falling Snowflakes

Abstract

Simultaneous observations were made of the fall velocity, size and mass of snowflakes in the steady falling state.
It was found that the fall velocity depended upon both the size and the density of the flakes, but could not be represented as a function of their mass. An aerodynamic equation which expresses the fall velocity as a function of the density of a snowflake σ, was obtained ; u=330(σ-ρ)1/4 which agrees very well with the empirical data, where ρ is the density of air.