Winter Weather Awareness Week: What are the Differences Between Snow, Sleet, and Freezing Rain?

There are 4 main types of precipitation that fall during the winter months, including snow, sleet, freezing rain, and plain rain.

Snow forms when the entire atmosphere is below freezing. You can have snow with above freezing surface temperatures, but it has to snow very hard in order for it to stick. Sleet forms when there is a shallow layer of warm air aloft. Snowflakes fall through this warm layer and melt, before refreezing into tiny balls of ice closer to the surface in the form of sleet. Freezing rain occurs when there is a deep layer of warm air aloft, but the surface temperatures are below freezing. Snowflakes fall through this warm layer and melt into rain. However, when they hit the ground, they freeze on contact, resulting in a sheet of ice. Freezing rain can be one of the more dangerous winter precipitation types, as ice accumulations can take down trees and powerlines and make travel nearly impossible in some cases.

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