What weather conditions makes snowflakes like this?

Question

I noticed the snow flakes on my car this morning aren't like any I can recall seeing. They're like fuzzballs, but with long "fingers". The flakes were very large too. Walking on the snow it felt like velvet rather than the regular "crunch crunch". This was in Youngstown, Ohio.

Answer 1

Thank you for asking this question, I had fun looking up the information. See photos at the link below! I think we have the same snow in Pittsburgh today.

From Research at site below:
Snowflakes and snow crystals are made of ice, and pretty much nothing more. A snow crystal, as the name implies, is a single crystal of ice. A snowflake is a more general term; it can mean an individual snow crystal, or a few snow crystals stuck together, or large agglomerations of snow crystals that form "puff-balls" that float down from the clouds.
One thing you notice right away about snow crystals is that they form some elaborate and complex shapes -- often displaying lacy, branching structures. Where does this complexity come from? After all, snow crystals are nothing more than ice which has condensed from water vapor. How does the simple act of water vapor freezing into ice produce such intricate designs?
The answers to these questions lie in just how water molecules travel through the air to condense onto a growing snow crystal. The water molecules have to diffuse through the air to reach the crystal, and this diffusion slows their growth. The farther water molecules have to diffuse through the air, the longer it takes them to reach the growing crystal
The growth of snow crystals depends on a balance between faceting (see Crystal Faceting) and branching. Faceting tends to make simple flat surfaces, while branching tends to make more complex structures. The interplay between faceting and branching is a delicate one, depending strongly on things like temperature and humidity. This means snow crystals can grow in many different ways, resulting in the great diversity we see in snow crystal forms

Answer 2

Sounds to me like it might be dendrite snow.

Dendrite
Dendrites are stars with attitude. Essentially, they are three dimensional star crystals with branches growing on more than a single plane. Branches (or arms) connect randomly to a central structure. These complex critters form under extremely cold conditions (-20 to -25 degrees C) when high levels of atmospheric moisture are present.

Answer 3

Snowflake formation is a complex process which is being studied with the help of randomized processes, brownian motion and chaos theory. A lot of factors come into play like temperature, humdity, dust, wind etc.