FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — With freezing rain in the forecast, it might leave you wondering why we’re going to see freezing rain instead of normal rain. What about sleet? How is that different from freezing rain? And, what about snow?
It comes down to our air temperatures in the atmosphere and where we can find warm air and cold air. The location matters too!
Rain
Let’s take a look at the formation of rain. In the wintertime, our raindrops begin as snowflakes! When the ice crystals leave the base of the cloud, the temperatures are below freezing, creating snow. But, as the snowflake falls, it falls into a layer of warmer air which causes it to melt back into liquid form. This stretch of warm air continues to the surface of the Earth.
Temperature Inversions: How they shake things up
It’s known and assumed that the air temperature decreases the further we go from the Earth’s surface. But, every once in a while, something called a temperature inversion happens, and it changes the temperature profile of our atmosphere.
According to the National Weather Service, a temperature inversion is defined as “A layer in the atmosphere in which air temperature increases with height.”
An inversion can sometimes cause our frozen precipitation to melt in the atmosphere before it even hits the ground. This phenomenon leads to the formation of freezing rain or sleet. Let’s look into the differences between the two.
Freezing Rain
Freezing rain begins as snow when it initially falls from the cloud. As it falls, it encounters a temperature inversion. A layer of thick, warmer air causes the ice crystals to melt back into their liquid form. It continues to fall through the atmosphere as liquid water for the majority of the time it falls, but then something happens when it reaches the surface…
The ground is cold and cold enough to freeze that rain droplet the second it makes contact. Hence, why we call it freezing rain!
Sleet
Sleet, like the rest of our precipitation types, begins as snow (or ice crystals) when it first departs the base of the cloud. The crystal encounters a temperature inversion when it falls and begins to melt back into its liquid state. But, here’s where the difference is: The layer of warmer air is thin. The droplet won’t be spending much time in that liquid state. It will quickly encounter another layer of colder air that will help it refreeze. Thus, landing at the surface as ice pellets!
Snow
Snow is the simplest type of winter precipitation. When the snowflake departs from the base of the cloud, it remains frozen throughout the entire duration of its fall. This is because the air is cold enough to keep the snowflake in a frozen, solid state.
"type" - Google News
January 23, 2024 at 01:44AM
https://ift.tt/OgQ9kIf
Here’s how air temperature determines the type of precipitation we see at the surface - WANE
"type" - Google News
https://ift.tt/zmlD25r
https://ift.tt/8m4rDXW
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Here’s how air temperature determines the type of precipitation we see at the surface - WANE"
Post a Comment