a difference between a freezing rain and a snow?

Answer 1

Freezing rain is rain or drizzle that freezes upon contract with the ground or other objects. This usually occurs when the cloud producing the percipitation is below freezing (0 in celcius, 32 in fahrenheit). It leaves the cloud as snow, but hits a critical point in the atmosphere where the temperature rises to above freezing, this turns it back into supercooled rain. If the ground and surrounding objects is below freezing, this supercooled rain will freeze on contact.

Snow is just ice crystals that forms while falling in and below a cloud. They don't hit a point in the atmosphere that allows them to melt, so they come down as snow.

Answer 2

Freezing rain is exactly what it sounds like, it's rain that freezes when it reaches the ground. It is kind of a weird phrase but the air temperature in the clouds can be warmer than 32 Fahrenheit so the water starts it's fall as rain. Then, if the air temperature at the ground is below 32 Fahrenheit the rain freezes on contact with the ground, trees, power lines, sidewalks, roads. It's actually a pretty nasty bit of weather to have, I've seen a quarter inch of ice coating everything!
Snow happens when the air temperature in the clouds and at the ground is below freezing, then the moisture is frozen during it's entire trip to the ground...presto, winter wonderland!

Answer 3

Nearly all precipitation begins as snow. You have to remember that the higher you go the colder the atmosphere is. The sun warms the earth's surface, this heat then rises and cools in the atmosphere both naturally and adiabatically(less pressure higher you go so molecules expand: bigger area with same amount of heat energy=cooler). This means that the warmest temperatures on the planet are at the surface. When these cool drops travel through the environment then they can warm and melt into rain droplets, If the ground is still frozen then the droplets can refreeze causing freezing rain. Thanks to upper level winds you can also have an inversion aloft are pockets where the temperature actually warms the higher up you go. This is what makes sleet possible(moisture melts then refreezes before hitting ground). Hail is not a winter storm event but caused in thunderstorms.

Answer 4

Good question. Here is the scientific answer. Freezing rain begins as snow but falls through a layer of the troposphere that is above freezing and melts. It then falls through a deep layer of air below freezing that extends to the surface. When it strikes the surface (trees, cars, telephone lines, streets and sidewalks, etc.) it freezes on contact.

Answer 5

freezing rain is when snow starts falling from the sky
then it melts and refreezes, very similar to sleet.
snow is just snow falling from the sky down to the earth without any change-over to rain.

Answer 6

a freezing rain is a kind of rain in which all the grass and stuff freezes. it means that it looks like snow but u cannot see it falling like snow and snow is what u know,

Answer 7

Freezing rain consists of dense pellets of ice and water. Snow is light and fluffy and consists only of ice crystals.

Answer 8

freezing rain is hail.