What Is Sleet

Dec 8, 2013sleet occurs when snowflakes only partially melt when they fall through a shallow layer of warm air. 14 hours agofreezing rain and sleet, though they are different in appearance, are very similar in how they are formed. Like freezing rain, sleet starts as snow, then melts and forms.

1 day agoboth sleet and freezing rain both involve warm air aloft and cold air near the ground. In great britain and in some parts of the united states, a mixture of rain and snow is called sleet, and the term has sometimes been used to identify the clear ice on objects that is more correctly known. 1 day agothe four types of precipitation are rain, snow, sleet and freezing rain.

Jan 12, 2026sleet happens when snowflakes fall through a shallow layer of warm air and partially melt. Oct 19, 2023sometimes the weather forecast warns of “ sleet,” rather than snow. Sleet, in contrast, forms in layered temperature inversions and consists of smaller, more uniform ice pellets, making it distinct from the larger, often more damaging hailstones.

1 day agosleet can accumulate on roads and sidewalks, but it typically doesn’t create the same level of widespread icing that freezing rain does. 2 days agosleet & freezing rain safety while sleet and freezing rain can look similar on radar (and even fall from the same storm system) their impacts on the ground can be very different..