Making sense of a messy mix
It happens every year at about this time. The e l u s i v e rain/ snow line does a dance over the region and we’re left with a sloppy mix of rain, snow and the “others.”
What are the others, and how do they differ?
Well, let me start with the most dangerous type of precipitation – freezing rain. Freezing rain forms when the layer of cold air close to the ground is very shallow. The raindrops that fall from the cloud don’t have time to change to ice before they reach the ground. The droplets become super-cooled – meaning they remain in a liquid stated below 0 Celsius. Those raindrops freeze when they come into contact with cold objects on or near the ground. As the name implies, it is freezing but not frozen. If you hear ice tapping on the window, then you’re not getting freezing rain.
That takes us to ice pellets; they can make quite a racket on the window. Ice pellets are small, translucent balls of ice. They are smaller than hailstones which fall from thunderstorms. Ice pellets form when the layer of cold air (below freezing) close to the ground extends upward far enough so that raindrops that fall from the cloud freeze into little balls of ice before reach- ing the ground. Ice pellets often bounce when they hit the ground or other solid objects, and make a higher-pitched “tap” sound when striking objects like jackets, windshields, and dried leaves.
I’d like to say that we won’t get any more of either, but I’d be fibbing!