Types of Winter Precipitation

With the recent showing of the rare snow that appeared last week I thought that would discuss the different types of winter precipitation so that in another four years when it actually snows again you can recall this article and know what is falling from the sky.

We will go from least fun to most fun. First off we have freezing rain, which is caused by rain forming in clouds that are above freezing and then freezes on contact with the ground. It just makes you cold and bitter to the degree that it could be snowing but the clouds are not cold enough. Next up is sleet which is similar to freezing rain, but the rain that forms higher up in the clouds goes through lower clouds which are freezing but does not freeze completely before it hits the ground. Some droplets freeze and others don’t which then mix together to make just a nasty, slushy, and cold mixture that somehow freezes you and anything outside to the core faster than anything.

Lastly there is snow, the wonderful powdery fluff that makes even the most Scrooge of us feel like a child on Christmas day. This is formed when the top of the clouds all the way to the ground is below freezing. The water in the clouds form microscopic ice crystals that grow into snowflakes. Last but not least is the extremely rare graupel, which is not confined to winter storms We have seen this phenomenon in Fayette county only a few short years ago. This rare precipitation is formed when the water droplets in the clouds come in contact with supercooled ice crystals, around the range of -40 degrees, and form microscopic layers of ice around that original crystal and fall from the sky as ice spheres shaped like Tic Tac candy. These pellets are not hard like hail. If you touch them they are soft and seem to fall apart and disappear.

The next semester has already started as it felt the break flew by, if you have any ideas or suggestions for articles you can contact the paper and I will get those messages forwarded to me or you can contact me directly with this email address tomy3290@gmail.com. Any topics are greatly appreciated, especially now more than ever. Now onto your local weather.

With Texas slowly thawing out from the snow we are warming back up into the mid 70s, cloudy with a good chance of rain for the rest of the week which hovers around 60%. With lows in the mid 50s for the rest of the week. There are no astronomical events this week. Thanks and Gig’em!