Debbie Campbell, age l5, of Oakmont, Pa., for her question:

How far does snow travel to reach the ground?

The formation of snow is not a simple process. Rain forms from microscopic droplets of liquid water which congeal into larger liquid drops. But snow is not frozen rain, though for a long time people thought that like rain it formed from liquid droplets. Most experts now think that snow most likely forms directly from gaseous molecules of water vapor.

The molecules of vapor gas chill to molecules of ice. snowflakes develop from these crystal fragments. They form wherever the right conditions exist  near the ground, higher up or aloft in a blustery cloud. some snow falls only a few feet and some sweeps down from perhaps a mile. On the way down, the snowflakes are blown by the wind and forced to take long slanting paths. some may be tossed miles from their place of origin.

Naturally, the journey depends upon how high up they began and the strength of the winter wind.