Snow Trivia Questions and Answers

Tap a choice for the answer and its reason: trivia questions about snow, from capped columns to Venus.

Question 1 of 10

See all 53 with answers
Magono and Lee classified freshly formed snow crystals into how many distinct shapes?

Pick an answer, then press Check answer. Then you see Correct or Not quite, with the reason. Keys: A to D pick, Enter checks.

Scored round: 20 questions, no time limit.

Print covers the next 20 questions. Share this set copies a link to the same questions in the same order.

More options

Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with any school, exam board or quiz show. Bank checked October 3, 2026.

Next step Winter trivia: the whole seasonPrint a team score sheet

How it works

Four rounds on snow itself: how snowflakes form; storms and snowfall; snowpack, avalanches and glaciers; and plows, skis, animals and the snow of other worlds.

Read the full guide

Snowflake trivia questions and answers

How snowflakes form is the snowflake round: needles and capped columns, supercooled droplets, and the scientist who charted crystal shape against temperature. Storms and snowfall covers squalls, lake-effect snow and how new snow is measured. Snowpack, avalanches and glaciers follows the snow that does not melt. The last round has rail plows, ski wax, pikas and what falls on Mars and Venus.

Science, not a forecast

Nothing here is a weather warning or avalanche advice. Tap a choice to check it; the reason and the article it was read in appear with the answer.

Tips
  • Snowpack, avalanches and glaciers is the vocabulary round: névé, firn, cirque and hoar frost.

Questions and answers

What are some easy snow trivia questions?

What is another name for an avalanche? What does ski wax reduce? Which side of a low-pressure area gets the most snow in the Northern Hemisphere? The answers are a snowslide, friction and the northern side.

Are the snow trivia questions and answers printable?

Yes. After ten answers the end card shows Print question sheet, which prints the next 20 questions with lettered choices. Print answer key is under More options and adds the reason for each answer.

Are there trivia questions about winter and snowflakes?

The first round is all snowflakes: their shapes, how a crystal starts and who classified them. The season itself, with the solstice, animals in winter and winter festivals, has its own pack of winter trivia on this site.

What is a snow squall?

A short, intense burst of snow. Along a cold front it can bring whiteout conditions, and it generally lasts less than 30 minutes at any one point, though the line of squalls can travel a long way.

How were the answers checked?

Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Snow, which every question links. Its list of snowfall records is not asked, because records fall, and its counts of skiers date from the 1990s.

More tools

Browse Question Games

All 53 questions with answers

How snowflakes form 11

  • A crystal starts as a column, falls into warmer air and sprouts plates at its ends. What is the result called? Answer: A capped column. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • A snowflake that reaches the ground is usually which of these? Answer: A cluster of ice crystals stuck together. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Ice crystals grow at the expense of water droplets in a process named after Wegener, Bergeron and which third scientist? Answer: Findeisen. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Magono and Lee classified freshly formed snow crystals into how many distinct shapes? Answer: 80. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Platelets, columns and rime are three basic shapes of snowflake. Which is the fourth? Answer: Needles. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Snow crystals that form in supersaturated air tend to look how? Answer: Lacy, delicate and ornate. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • What is a water droplet called when it stays liquid below the freezing point? Answer: Supercooled. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • What kind of cooling happens when moist air is lifted up the side of a mountain range? Answer: Adiabatic cooling. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which icy deposit forms on objects and not in a cloud? Answer: Rime. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which silver compound is used as an artificial ice nucleus in cloud seeding? Answer: Silver iodide. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Who developed a diagram that relates the shape of a snow crystal to the temperature and moisture it formed in? Answer: Ukichiro Nakaya. Source: Wikipedia: Snow

Storms and snowfall 11

  • A frontal snowsquall generally lasts less than how long at any one point on its path? Answer: 30 minutes. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Apart from Antarctica, where is snow mainly found in the Southern Hemisphere? Answer: In mountainous areas. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • By a 2007 estimate, in which month is snow cover over the Northern Hemisphere at its smallest? Answer: August. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • By what is the intensity of snowfall determined? Answer: Visibility. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • In the international classification, the height of new snow is measured on a board over an observation period of how long? Answer: 24 hours. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • In the Northern Hemisphere, which side of a low-pressure area produces the most snow? Answer: The northern side. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • On which shore of a lake does lake-effect snow come down? Answer: The leeward, or downwind, shore. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • What is lake-effect snow called when it forms over salt water? Answer: Ocean-effect snow. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • What is snowfall called when a wind forces moist air up the windward side of a mountain range? Answer: Orographic snowfall. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which common weather instrument can measure snowfall once its funnel and inner cylinder are taken out? Answer: A standard rain gauge. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which list runs from the shortest, lightest snow event to the longest and most intense? Answer: Flurry, shower, storm, blizzard. Source: Wikipedia: Snow

Snowpack, avalanches and glaciers 15

  • Firn is said to resemble which kitchen staple? Answer: Caked sugar. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Glaciers form where the build-up of snow and ice is greater than what? Answer: Ablation. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • The minimum density of névé is roughly what fraction of the density of liquid water? Answer: Half. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • On steeper slopes, snow and ice can begin to move as a glacier when the mass is as little as how thick? Answer: 15 meters. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Powder snow avalanches can exceed which speed? Answer: 300 kilometers per hour. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Settling under its own weight, a snowpack can reach about what share of the density of water? Answer: 30 percent. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • What are the ice crystals called that water vapor deposits during cold, still conditions? Answer: Hoar frost. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • What is the armchair-shaped hollow in which an alpine glacier forms called? Answer: A cirque. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • What is the granular snow called that lasts into summer after being partly melted, refrozen and compacted? Answer: Névé. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • What is the lowest altitude at which firn builds up on a glacier called? Answer: The firn line, or snowline. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • When avalanche snow mixes with the air it forms a powder snow avalanche, which is a type of what? Answer: Gravity current. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which kind of avalanche is a slow suspension of snow and water, moving at about 10 to 40 kilometers per hour? Answer: A wet snow avalanche. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which kind of avalanche looks like a block of snow cut out of its surroundings by fractures? Answer: A slab avalanche. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which of these is another name for an avalanche? Answer: A snowslide. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which word names snow that has lasted for several years and recrystallized, but is not yet glacial ice? Answer: Firn. Source: Wikipedia: Snow

Plows, skis, animals and other worlds 16

  • In which decade was the rotary snowplow invented? Answer: The 1860s. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • The leading candidates for the "snow" on the highest peaks of Venus are bismuth sulfide and a sulfide of which other metal? Answer: Lead. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • On a railroad, what does a flanger clear? Answer: Snow from between the rails. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • On Mars, which compound falls from clouds at the poles in winter and makes up most of the ice caps? Answer: Carbon dioxide. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • On which moon of Saturn did spacecraft observations suggest crystalline deposits of methane or another hydrocarbon? Answer: Titan. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Phoenix Airfield has a runway of compacted snow. On which continent is it? Answer: Antarctica. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Snowmaking forces water and pressurized air through which device? Answer: A snow gun. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • What are the structures called that cover railroad track in snowy mountains to keep heavy snow and avalanches off it? Answer: Snow sheds. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • What does ski wax reduce? Answer: Friction between the ski and the snow. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which animals are active in snow at temperatures as low as 18 degrees Fahrenheit and lay their eggs in melt ponds? Answer: Alpine salamanders. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which of these hunters dives into the snowpack to catch the small animals that live beneath it? Answer: Foxes. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which railroad snowplow casts snow to both sides of the track? Answer: The wedge plow. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which river receives much of its water from the seasonal snowpack of the Rocky Mountains? Answer: The Colorado River. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which small mammal stores up to 20 kilograms of food beneath the snow? Answer: The pika. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Which temperature measure is used as the metric for snowmaking, because it takes humidity into account? Answer: Wet-bulb temperature. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
  • Why are chloride chemicals typically banned from airport runways? Answer: They corrode aluminum aircraft. Source: Wikipedia: Snow
How this list was compiled

Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, a fact from the English Wikipedia article named and linked beside the question (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license): Snow. The text of each article was fetched on October 2, 2026, and on October 3, 2026 the passage that states each fact was read in it before the question was kept. Left out on purpose: the article's list of snowfall records (records fall), its figures on skiers and ski areas (they date from the 1990s), its section on warfare, and what the site's winter questions already ask (the wind and visibility rules for a blizzard, the ground blizzard, why snow looks white, the photographer of snowflakes). Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits people who know the subject, hard will stump most tables. Each question also carries the date its article was read (checkedOn). Licence: own work