How We Decide Rain/Sleet/Snow

Some shoreline locations saw all rain. High elevation towns inland got all snow. Most of us had both plus a little sleet!

Forecasting what kind of slop falls from the sky is one of winter’s most difficult predictions. I wrote a little story about it for Thursday’s Hartford Courant and thought you might enjoy reading along.

We didn’t have a lot of precipitation today, but we sure had a lot of different types! Some shoreline locations saw all rain. High elevation towns inland got all snow. Most of us had both plus a little sleet!

Predicting the precipitation type has everything to do with temperature, though not necessarily the temperature at ground level. Ice crystal formation and snow growth takes place mainly between 10,000 and 20,000 feet up. If the temperature remains below freezing from cloud to ground snow falls intact.

Wednesday had some milder pockets tucked in the atmosphere. Snow melted then refroze producing sleet. Near the shore there wasn’t enough cold air to refreeze the melted snow and so it was rain that hit the ground.

We missed Connecticut’s most dangerous winter precipitation which occurs when mild pockets melt falling snow, but very cold temperatures at the surface refreeze it on contact. Freezing rain can and has turned Interstates to skating rinks!

7 thoughts on “How We Decide Rain/Sleet/Snow”

  1. Just a quick question that I’ve been trying to find the answer for a while now. What is the record for the most freezing rain accumulated ice in CT?

  2. Good question, although I believe back in the early 70’s we had a wicked ice storm that impacted much of the state. I lived in Scotland, Conn at the time and we had no power in Mid December for over 7 days. You could see the power lines under very thick ice on the roads. Pipes froze, it was a horrible mess for many residents. The trees were beautiful looking like crystal ornaments but very deadly. This was on top of snow packed ground. Didn’t have to worry about food spoiling, yah just put it outside the door in a container and it stayed frozen without a problem. I remember it very well, as my son was 1 1/2 years old and we had our Xmas tree up! I also remember leaving a steak on the counter to put on a grill outdoors which left unattended was devoured by my collie who thought it was her dinner, lol. No fun when the heat came on and you definitely knew where the frozen pipes were! Also one of those events I would not want to live again, at least not at my age, haha!

    1. I remember that ice storm as well. Absolutely beautiful to look at but it did devastate and impact much of the state. Lived and worked in Chester, CT.

  3. I think iit was the mid 90’s,the Meriden area was hit with an ice storm that dropped a half inch of freezing rain.There was a LOT of tree damage,and power was out for two day’s.

  4. @Pamela. i believe it was 1973-1974. I was at a movie in Orange and we came out to a skating rink of a parking lot. My house was a 10 minute drive normally but took us 2 hours to get home. We were stuck several times and people came to help us out. That was the worst ice storm I remember along the shoreline.

  5. Thank you everyone for your responses, from the sound of it there not a very common experience (which is a good thing, I’m not good on ice) I remember we got about a 1/10th inch or so last year and I got some nice photographs of the trees.

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