Dec 8, 2013 · Sleet occurs when snowflakes only partially melt when they fall through a shallow layer of warm air. These slushy drops refreeze as they next fall through a deep layer of freezing air above the surface, and eventually reach the ground …

Oct 6, 2021 · Both sleet and freezing rain start with a snowflake that melts into a raindrop as it encounters a slice of warmer air on its free-fall through the atmosphere. But if there is a renewed area of freezing temperatures near the ground, the drop will refreeze. WHAT IS …

Jul 9, 2019 · Freezing rain forms similarly to sleet, except that the layer of warm air at mid-levels is deeper. Precipitation starts out as either snow or supercooled raindrops, but it all becomes rain in the warm layer.

While snow, sleet, and freezing rain are familiar precipitation types to most people, one that may be lesser known is graupel, also known as snow pellets. Graupel forms when snowflakes are...

Nov 21, 2022 · Sleet is made up of ice pellets, not crystals. It also starts as snow but falls through a layer of air above freezing, where the snow melts and becomes rain. Near the ground, it travels through enough cold air to have the liquid water freeze.

Jan 21, 2025 · Freezing rain can cause dangerous travel conditions even in small amounts, according to the NWS. What is sleet? Sleet happens when snowflakes are only partially melted in a shallow layer of...

The snowflake refreezes and becomes an ice pellet we call sleet. Sleet typically bounces when it hits the ground. Freezing rain follows a similar journey as sleet, but instead of a thin pocket of warm air, freezing rain falls through a larger pocket of warm air in the middle of its journey.

Jan 19, 2025 · Snow, sleet, freezing rain—what’s the difference? Here's how winter precipitation forms and what to watch for.

Sleet. Sleet occurs when snowflakes only partially melt when they fall through a shallow layer of warm air. These slushy drops refreeze as they next fall through a deep layer of freezing air above the surface, and eventually reach the ground as frozen rain drops that bounce on impact.

Jan 9, 2025 · When that layer of "warm air" is thicker and the bottom layer of "cold air" is thin, the melted snowflake doesn't have time to refreeze into a sleet pellet. Instead, it falls to the ground as a...