Excellent question! All snowflakes are made up of frozen water (ice), so why don’t they look exactly the same? Their unique shape comes from the unique conditions under which each snowflake is made. As a tiny ice crystal is blown into and out of a cloud, or rises or falls in a jet of slightly warmer or colder air, the shape of the growing snowflake can change. In a sense, their shape describes a story of how they were made.