1. No two snowflakes are the same
世界上不存在兩片完全相同的雪花
First of all, it’s a myth that no two snowflakes are the same. In 1988, a scientist found two identical snow crystals that had both formed in a snow storm in Wisconsin, USA.
首先，「不存在兩片完全相同的雪花」這一說法是假的。1988年，一名科學家發現了兩個完全相同的雪結晶，而且這兩片雪花都是在美國威斯康星州的一場雪暴中形成的。
Since then scientists have come to learn that snowflakes can only form into 35 different shapes. Although scientists are also unsure why exactly the various shapes of snowflake form, they have identified eight predominant shapes, with each of these eight shapes having several different variations.
之後，科學家了解到雪花只會有35種不同形狀的造型。雖然科學家也不清楚雪花會形成各種各樣形狀的準確原因，但是他們已經確定出了雪花的8種主要形狀，這8種形狀中的每一種又有幾種不同的變化。
2. Snow is white
雪是白色的
Second biggest myth, snow isn’t white. It’s actually colorless. Snow is made up of ice particles, and ice is translucent, which means that light does not pass through it easily, but rather it gets reflected.
這是第二大誤區，但其實雪不是白色的，而是無色的。雪是由冰晶分子組成的，而冰是半透明的，也就是說光線不能很輕易地穿透它，而會被其反射。
When light hits a snowflake, it gets reflected back from the snowflake’s many surfaces, often bouncing between these surfaces, and because of this that light is reflected back to our eyes as the color white. This is why, up close or magnified, a snowflake always looks clear, yet in reality appears as white.
當光線照射在雪上，雪花的眾多冰晶表面會將其反射回去，通常是在各表面間來回反射，也正因為如此，反射進我們眼睛中的光線就呈現出了白色。這就是為什麼近看或放大看雪花，顏色是透明的，但是在實際生活中肉眼看上去卻是白色的。
translucent[træns'lusnt]: adj. 半透明的
3. Snow always looks white
雪看起來總是白色的
Lastly, snow doesn’t always appear to us as the color white. Not counting the infamous yellow snow that everyone knows never to eat, you can also get naturally blue snow or even pink snow.
最後，雪所呈現的顏色也不是只有白色。不算上臭名昭著的黃雪（每個人都知道不要吃這種雪），還有天然的藍色雪甚至是粉色雪。
Deep snow can sometimes appear blue in color because the extra layers of snow create a filter for light, which causes more red light to be absorbed by the snow than blue light, meaning that it looks blue.
深深的積雪有時候會呈現出藍色，因為更厚的雪成為了光線的濾鏡，導致雪層吸收的紅光多於藍光，這意味著雪會看起來發藍。
俄羅斯聖彼得堡的這場藍色的雪：