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	Podcast:		Short Wave
	Episode:		The Record For World's Largest Snowflake Might Not Count
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:11:00
	Publish Date:		2024-01-08 08:00:59
	Description:		A winter storm brought heavy rain and snow to parts of the East Coast this weekend, which got us thinking about snowflakes. Those 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. Want to share the snowflakes you've spotted this winter? Email us a photo at shortwave@npr.org.
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