Journal of the Japanese Society of Snow and Ice

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Supercooled waterclouds often contain minute snowcrystals, 10100μ in size, which are-considered to be the incipient stages of crystal growth. The author collected about 200 photomicrographs of such crystals at the observatories of Mt. Fuji (3776) and Mt. Ibuki (1370), and investigated the relation between their crystal forms and the air temperatures at the time when observed.
The columnar forms were always observed at temperatures above-10°C, and the tabular forms below-9°C. The observed temperature ranges of various crystal forms are shown in the table.
These results are nearly consistent with the case of artificial snow.
The author concludes that all snow crystals are, at first stage of its formation, perfect crystals of about 10μ in size, which undergo different skeletal growth corresponding to the temperature, i.e. in the direction of principal áxis above-10°C, and in the directions of secondary axes below-10°C. The temperature range of the most rapid growth parallel to the secondary axes is-12.5-15°C, which is by 12°C, higher than that of dendritic artificial snow.

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