The Dubious World's Largest Snowflake Record

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

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)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The Indicator is a podcast where Daily Economic News is about what matters to you.
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0:20.4	Listen to The Indicator, the Daily Economics podcast from NPR.
0:24.4	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:30.7	Hey, shortwavers.
0:32.3	Winter is here, at least for those of us who live in the northern hemisphere of our dear planet.
0:36.9	And depending on where you are, there may or may not be snow.
0:40.5	The Guinness World Record folks have compiled a bunch of records related to snow.
0:44.7	And NPR's Nell Greenfield Boys was recently looking at them.
0:47.9	Hey, Nell.
0:48.5	Hey.
0:49.2	Okay, hit me with some snow records.
0:51.8	All right.
0:52.3	How about the longest time spent in full body contact with snow?
0:58.2	So that would be 105 minutes and two seconds.
1:02.9	Oh my gosh.
1:03.5	Those last two seconds must have been like intense.
1:05.9	Okay, let's hear another one.
1:07.4	How about the most people making snow angels simultaneously? So that one is 8,962 people who gathered in North Dakota.
	...

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