Snow symbol
Asterisks are the snow symbol on a weather map. One asterisk is light intermittent snow and two side by side light continuous snow; more asterisks mean heavier snow.
How to read it
Snow is the 70 to 79 group in the WMO’s present weather table, as reproduced by NOAA’s JetStream school and the University of British Columbia’s course chart. A single asterisk is an intermittent fall of snowflakes, slight at the time of observation, and the asterisk is repeated for continuous or heavier snow, as the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s notes describe for rain, snow and drizzle alike. An asterisk over a small open triangle pointing down is a snow shower.
Also searched as: asterisk on a weather map, snow shower symbol, star on a weather map, two stars weather symbol.
These pages describe what each symbol on a weather chart means. They are not forecasts or warnings: for those, the national weather service for the area is the source.
Snow showers
Snow shower An asterisk over a downward-pointing triangle.
Look-alikes
A dot is Rain symbol and a comma Drizzle symbol. JetStream’s table lists ice pellets (sleet) in the same group, with a symbol of their own.
Read next
- Next in Weather map symbolsThunderstorm symbolThis bracket with a zigzag arrow is the thunderstorm symbol. With a dot above it, the storm has rain; with a small triangle above it, it has hail.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of BurundiA white diagonal cross divides the flag into red triangles at top and bottom and green ones at the sides, with a white disc in the centre holding three red six-pointed stars. The Presidency of Burundi says the red recalls the sacrifices made to defend the nation and win independence, the green hope and prosperity, the white peace and unity, and that the three stars traditionally stand for the national motto, “Unity, Work, Progress”.
More weather map symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with crosses or stars.
Sources
- JetStream Max: Surface Weather Plot Symbols, JetStream, the NWS online weather school, NOAA National Weather Service, Present Weather Symbols: codes 70-79 and 80-89
- Present weather symbols (annotated chart), ATSC 113 course notes; descriptions abridged from the WMO code, University of British Columbia, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Present weather, codes 70-79 and 80-89
- Reading the surface station model, Online Weather supplemental information, 9 February 1999, by Edward J. Hopkins, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Weather symbol convention
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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