On Sat, 11 Jan 2014 22:47:09 +0000 (UTC), DerbyDad03
wrote:

wrote:
On Sat, 11 Jan 2014 02:29:47 +0000 (UTC), DerbyDad03
wrote:

"Snag" wrote:
This one
was so bad because it was freezing rain falling on frozen ground . It makes
me wonder , how can it be raining when the air temp is like 29* ? Why isn't
it SNOW by the time it hits ?

Actually, freezing rain can't "fall" on anything.

In a nutshell...

All precipitation basically starts out as snow crystals inside of a cloud.
What happens after the crystals leave the cloud determines what we get at
ground level.

Wrong. How the droplets form (liquid/solid -
condensation/sublimation) depends on the temperature in the cloud.

http://www.weather.com/encyclopedia/winter/precip.html

"All precipitation starts out as ice or snow crystals at cloud level. When
this frozen precipitation falls into a layer of sufficiently warmer air
(with temperatures above freezing) it melts into rain. If this warm air
extends all the way to the surface of the earth, rain will fall at ground
level."

Wrong, of course. Summer rains are not frozen, anywhere.