The Dubious World's Largest Snowflake Record

可疑的世界最大雪花记录

Short Wave

科学

2025-01-03

11 分钟
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Snowflakes. These intricate, whimsical crystals are a staple of magical wintry scenes, but how big can they really get? Well, according to the Guinness World Record keepers, the "largest snowflake" ever recorded was a whopping 15 inches in diameter. It was spotted near Missoula, Montana in 1887. But Kenneth Libbrecht, a physicist at Caltech, has long been skeptical of that record. So he set out to find what makes a snowflake a snowflake and whether that 1887 record is scientifically possible. You can read more about what he discovered here. (encore) Want to share the snowflakes you've spotted this winter? Email us a photo at shortwave@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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  • You're listening to shortwave from npr.

  • Hey, shortwavers, Winter is here, at least for those of us who live in the northern hemisphere of our dear planet.

  • And depending on where you are, there may or may not be snow.

  • The Guinness World Record folks have compiled a bunch of records related to snow, and NPR's Neil Greenfield Boyce was recently looking at them.

  • Hey, Nell.

  • Hey.

  • Okay, hit me with some snow records.

  • All right, how about the longest time spent in full body contact with snow?

  • So that would be 105 minutes and two seconds.

  • Oh, my gosh.

  • Those last two seconds must have been, like, intense.

  • Okay, let's hear another one.

  • How about the most people making snow angels simultaneously?

  • So that one is 8962 people who gathered in North Dakota.

  • And then there's the largest snowflake.

  • So the Guinness people say there was a snowflake 15 inches in diameter and 8 inches thick that fell in Montana in 1887.

  • Wow.

  • Okay, so a snowflake that was more than a foot across.

  • Is that, like, even possible?

  • Okay, that's what I wanted to know.