Snow Carol (to the tune of “Winter Wonderland”)

In the air, vapor’s swirling,
On the pond, folks are curling,
The vapor makes drops, the drops freeze and pop,
And six-sided snowflakes fall down.

On the lake, skates are gliding,
Overhead, clouds are hiding,
Ice in the sky is growing, oh, my,
And six-sided snowflakes fall down

Snowflakes could be square or five pointed,
Or octagons, or spherical, you know,
But water with water is jointed
So that only six arms can grow.

On the slopes, skiers swish on,
Snowflakes hide stars to wish on,
They fall through the air, and catch in your hair,
The six-sided snowflakes fall down.

The science? Snowflakes do indeed have hexagonal near-symmetry, and this goes back to the crystal structure of ice. The condensation of water vapor into droplets and their subsequent freezing and splintering to seed more droplets into freezing is also part of cloud physics.