While all forms of winter precipitation start as snow high up in the clouds, there are four primary types that eventually reach the ground: snow, sleet, freezing rain and plain old rain.

Sleet. Sleet occurs when there is warmer air closer to the base of the cloud, not the ground. Snow falls through this wedge of warmer air, partially melts and then refreezes as a small ice pellet ...

Sleet bounces off objects while freezing rain instantly freezes on contact with an object. Sleet is not to be confused with hail. Hail happens during the summer months within a thunderstorm cloud.

Sleet and Freezing rain are referred to as separate precipitation types, ... Snow falls out of the cloud but because temperatures are all above freezing directly below that, ...

Whether it's fluffy snow, a slop of sleet, icy freezing rain or just plain rain, temperatures on the precipitation's journey from the cloud means everything.

When it comes to winter, the NBC10 First Alert Weather Team uses a lot of terms to describe precipitation. There’s rain, snow, sleet, even freezing rain!

Whether cloud layers generate snow or sleet depends critically on the layering of temperature in and below those clouds. This is shown in the graphic below.

Sleet develops similarly to snow with ice crystals falling from cold winter clouds. The difference comes from a thin layer of warmer air in the atmosphere that partially melts snowflakes as they ...

The forecast is calling for a variety of precipitation on Wednesday in the Carolinas, including rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow. The latest forecast is in the video player above.

Well, let's imagine the earth's atmosphere from the base of the cloud to the ground is like a slice of cake with many layers. In the case of snow, the entire slice of cake is frozen or below 32 ...

Sleet forms as rain that refreezes on its way to the ground, but hail takes shape within the clouds. Hail forms in the colder portions of clouds with strong updrafts.

Snow occurs when the atmosphere is "cold" all the way from the clouds to down here at the surface. Sleet and freezing rain form because of a "warm-air sandwich" in the atmosphere above our heads.