Our First Real Taste Of Winter

I'm happy to report that the weatherazzi was bigtime wrong in their forecasts for today. They were calling for 1-4 inches of snow with a half inch of ice on top of it. We ended up with maybe an eighth of an inch of ice and no snow, thank goodness; today's commute home was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride even with no precipitation going on. But I digress. Last night and today, the weatherazzi was calling for sleet, freezing rain and snow. Some faithful readers contacted me and asked if I would do them a favor and explain the difference between sleet and freezing rain. As always, I was happy to oblige.

Actually, it's pretty simple. Freezing rain is rain that falls from a cloud as a liquid but turns to ice on contact with a freezing object. It forms a smooth ice coating, referred to as glaze. Usually, freezing rain only falls for a short time, because as the air temperature changes even slightly, freezing rain either turns to rain or to snow. Freezing rain falling with enough power can result in ice storms. Freezing rain starts out as falling snow that hits a layer of warm air on the way down, that causes it to melt and become rain. Then it passes through a thin layer of cold air that super cools it. When the drops hit frozen surfaces they freeze, forming a layer of ice.

Sleet is frozen or partially frozen raindrops, in the form of ice pellets. Sleet forms as rain passes through a layer of freezing air above the ground. The rain freezes to form hard, clear, tiny ice pellets. These pellets hit the ground fast, and bounce off with a clicking sound.

Now we know the difference between sleet and freezing rain, and we'll be able to decipher the forecasts of the weatherazzi.