Why does snow sometimes

[elucidator]

Noticed walking through the recent snow, how it sparkels like the gleam in a bankers eye as he contemplates the mystery of compounded interest.

But it seems that somethimes it sparkles, sometimes it simply falls down and lies there. Why? Anyone know?

[Squink]

It's mostly a matter of the size of the snowflakes reflective crystal faces. With snow needles or small flakes the faces are too small to much in the way of a specular reflection. The result is more diffuse as if off of ground glass. With larger crystal planes, you start to get reflections of images rather than diffusion.
A field of big snowflakes under a clear dark sky and a full moon can be quite stunning to walk over !

[elucidator]

Aha! Under what conditions do these flakes form as compared with the boring kind?