Snow is not frozen rain. Snow forms by sublimation of water vapor—the turning of water vapor directly into ice, without going through the liquid stage. High above the ground, chilled water vapor turns to ice when its temperature reaches the dew point. The result of this sublimation is a crystal of ice, usually hexagonal. Snow begins in the form of these tiny hexagonal ice crystals in the high clouds; the young crystals are the seeds from which snowflakes will grow. As water vapor is pumped up into the air by updrafts, more water is deposited on the ice crystals, causing them to grow. Soon some of the larger crystals fall to the ground as snowflakes.