Several parts combine into one character.

雪 stacks two ideas: 雨 (rain) on top, and 彐 (a hand sweeping) below. The reasoning: "rain you can sweep with your hand" — soft, gathered, brushed aside. Identical across 繁體 / 新字体 / 简体. The construction is a perfect example of how Chinese script extends a basic radical (雨) to derive a related concept by adding a small hint underneath.

Mandarin: xuě, dipping 3rd tone. 下雪 (xià xuě, "to snow"), 雪花 (xuěhuā, "snow flower" = snowflake), 雪人 (xuěrén, snowman), 滑雪 (huáxuě, skiing — "slide snow"), 雪糕 (xuěgāo, ice cream — popular in southern China; northerners say 冰淇淋). The Yeti / Abominable Snowman is 雪人 in Chinese sources too.

Japanese: on-reading セツ (setsu) in 積雪 (sekisetsu, snow accumulation), 除雪 (josetsu, snow removal), 雪国 (yukiguni — "snow country", title of Kawabata's Nobel-winning novel — note kun-reading here). The kun-reading ゆき (yuki) is the everyday word and a beloved girl's name. 初雪 (hatsuyuki, first snow of the season) is a compound noun the Japanese calendar tracks year by year.

In Tang and Song poetry, 雪 carries the weight of solitude and purity — Du Fu, Wang Wei, and Bashō all built quiet poems on the silence of snow. The character itself feels visually quiet: a heavy rain-roof above, a small swept hand below.

Memory aid: rain that gets brushed away by hand. Soft, sweep-able rain = snow.