PNW snow and freeizing rain.

[Crankin]

I remember freezing rain here when I was a kid. But,it does seem we have it more often now. It scares the hell out of me, but I still don't get why sometimes the rain turns to ice and other times it's light snow when the temperature is hovering around freezing. I guess it's humidity, but I'll take snow any day!
This is the only place I've lived that's had snow, so no comparison. However, when I used to travel to northern AZ from Tempe, I noticed the snow there was completely different. All powder. I couldn't teach my kids how to make a snowman until we moved here.

[Blueberry]

I remember freezing rain here when I was a kid. But,it does seem we have it more often now. It scares the hell out of me, but I still don't get why sometimes the rain turns to ice and other times it's light snow when the temperature is hovering around freezing. I guess it's humidity, but I'll take snow any day!

According to our weather talking heads, it has to do with the upper level temperatures (with a cold layer at the ground). If it's cold all the way up, we get snow. If there's a warm layer above that's thin, we get sleet. If there's a thick warm layer, we get freezing rain. The are now saying we are in for the worst storm since 2002. I was in law school in the time, and we had no power for the entirety of exam week. Really, really hoping that doesn't happen again!

[lph]

Yup, there's a basic difference between rain and snow, in that snow forms from water vapour in air that is cold and dry enough to cause crystal growth. There's lots of air in snow. Snow can melt to rain, but once a raindrop is formed it can't turn into snow. It can freeze to hail on the way down, but the transition is "hard". So once they're formed raindrops will often keep falling in quite cold air, and not freeze until they hit the cold ground.

[skhill]

Freezing rain is absolutely the worst-- in the early 2000s we had a storm that caused massive power outages. I was out for 7.5 days (you remember these things!). Then there was one a few years later when I had no power for just a day, but it took me 4 days to clear enough ice off the car to get into it. Bad news. The freezing rain we got a week and a half ago took down the power about 5 min after the end of "Sherlock" (good timing) and it was back by the time my feline alarm clock went off in the morning.

I'd far rather deal with 10" snow than .5" freezing rain...

[GLC1968]

Oak - I lived in Michigan in the 70's....back then, it was pretty much always cold enough for snow! Actually, it was pre-driving years too...so it's possible we did have freezing rain but I was too young to care/notice?

I also left Wisconsin off my list of northern residences. No freezing rain there (as far I as I remember).

And yes, it comes from the warm air mass up above the cold air mass near the ground. It happened a lot in NC. It happens here every once in awhile but typically, it's not even cold enough for things to freeze here (unless the skies are clear).

Today we are back to temps near 40 and an awful lot of slush everywhere!

[TrekDianna]

We're digging out here in my part of Oregon. Even with the last couple of days of rain it hasn't all melted. I live on the side of a mountain and we got over 2 feet of snow before it was coated with the freezing rain. My hill to my house is a bit over 2 miles with an average grade of 12%. It's a gravel road and not maintained by the county so it's all up to us. The crack of the branches as they froze and became too heavy to stay on the trees is quite eerie in the otherwise silent world up here.