Sleet

                      SLEET

   

    Sleet is made up of a translucent ball of frozen raindrops. Sleet forms when the layer of subfreezing air ( colder than the temperature at which water freezes) in the atmosphere deep enough to freeze.

     

    The difference between freezing rain and sleet is very minimal. When sleet hits the ground (or any surface), it bounces off unlike freezing rain which covers a surface with a sheet of ice. Instead sleet covers a flat surface with millions of tiny ice pellets.

    Both snow and sleet can fall at any temperature below 32 F and when the air beneath the cloud is dry. If this happens, the rain partly evaporates as it falls. Then the evaporation cools the particles enough to keep them frozen all the way to the ground. Sleet is particularly resilient against melting.

Freezing Rain

              FREEZING RAIN

   Freezing Rain forms when snow falls into a band of warmer air, the snow melts to form raindrops. If the air is below freezing, the raindrops cool along with the temperature (below freezing), but they will not freeze until they reach the ground.
   Freezing Rain coats everything in a sheet of ice, causing plants to die or be damaged and roads dangerous.
   

   During an intense freezing rain storm, trees can be painted with a thick coat of ice. The extra weight can sometimes be to much for the branches to bare, damaging the tree badly. 

   Freezing rain is the most common in the North East, the Upper Mid-West, the Columbia River Valley, and along the Mid Atlantic foothills of the Appalachians. The reason for freezing rain to here is because these are areas were cold air sinks or can be trapped at the surface. Meaning, warmer air moves above the cold arir to form the warm layer the snow passes through.

Percipitation

                                         RAIN

      Like snow and hail, rain falls when they grow  to be to heavy to carried by the cloud. From the top of the cloud the start to fall, collecting smaller water droplets on the way down until they reach the cloud base (the bottom of the cloud). Then the rain falls. Smaller rain drops, called drizzle, comes from stratus clouds.
     Smaller raindrops are shaped like a sphere. While larger raindrops make a more spheroid shape, a sphere with a dent at the bottom. The sent is caused by the wind resistance. If they grow larger they open up like a parachute before bursting into smaller raindrops.

    

   If the temperature remains above 32 degrees, precipitation particles melts into liquid drops bigger than 0.5 mm., called "rain".

Snow

                                        Snow

    Snow, like rain drops falls when they grow to heavy for their cloud. Snow forms if the cloud height is below a height of 1000 ft. high so that the ice crystals (snow) do no t melt by the time they reach the ground. 

   Wilson A. Bentley (was a farmer of Vermont, U.S.A), is known for taking the first detailed photograph of a snowflake in 1885. His book 'Snow Crystals' has become a classic and the phrase 'No two snowflakes are alike' came from him. The shape of a snowflake is established by the temperature and the humidity level of the atmosphere. The different forms snowflakes come in are shown below:

    1888 was not a good year for weather, for two famous and tragic blizzards occured in this year.

• The Children's Blizzard (or also known as the 'Schoolhouse Blizzard'). Hit the U.S planes states on January, 12, 1888. The blizzard came unexpectedly on a warm day, causing many people to go unaware of the great blizzard. Especially the children in the one room schoolhouse, giving this blizzard its name, for most of the 235 causalities were children. This storm started on January 12, and ended on January 13.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 'The Great Blizzard Of 1888' going through March 11, and March 14, 1888. Also known as 'The Great White Hurricane' was one of the worst blizzards in recorded in the U.S.A. Hitting the East Coast from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine as well as th eAtlantic province of Canada. Snowfall was recorded to get as deep as 20-60 inches, and held winds more than 45 miles per hours fast.

 

   Even though it can never be to cold to snow, it can become less likely in below freezing temperatures. This is because cold air carries less water vapor, and heavy and dense making it less likely to expand to condense.