Sleet vs. Freezing Rain: What's the Difference? — In Plain Words

General information only.

The bottom line both pages agree on

Sleet freezes before it lands and bounces.

Freezing rain freezes on contact and glazes.

That is the shared bottom line. How each one forms is worded two different ways on the Weather Service's own pages, so the next two sections print each wording on its own, with its page named.

How the Northern Indiana page words it

The National Weather Service page for Northern Indiana, titled “What is the Difference between Sleet, Freezing Rain, and Snow?”, says its descriptions are excerpts from NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) Severe Weather 101 material. In that wording:

Sleet: Sleet occurs when snowflakes only partially melt when they fall through a shallow layer of warm air. These slushy drops refreeze as they next fall through a deep layer of freezing air above the surface, and eventually reach the ground as frozen rain drops that bounce on impact. Depending on the intensity and duration, sleet can accumulate on the ground much like snow.

Freezing rain: Freezing rain occurs when snowflakes descend into a warmer layer of air and melt completely. When these liquid water drops fall through another thin layer of freezing air just above the surface, they don't have enough time to refreeze before reaching the ground. Because they are “supercooled,” they instantly refreeze upon contact with anything that is at or below freezing (32 degrees F), creating a glaze of ice on the ground, trees, power lines, or other objects.

Ice storm: On that same page, a significant accumulation of freezing rain lasting several hours or more is called an ice storm.

That same page also states the effects this way: even light accumulations can cause dangerous travel, while heavier amounts can cause significant damage to trees and power lines.

How the Blacksburg page words it

The National Weather Service page for Blacksburg, titled “Freezing Rain and Sleet,” words it this way:

Both freezing rain and sleet occur by the same general process: liquid raindrops in a layer of warm air well above the surface fall into a layer of freezing air hugging the ground. The difference between these two wintry precipitation types depends on the thickness of the layer of freezing air.

Freezing rain: Freezing rain occurs when the layer of freezing air is so thin that the raindrops do not have enough time to freeze before reaching the ground. Instead, the water freezes on contact with the surface, creating a coating of ice on whatever the raindrops contact.

Sleet: Sleet is simply frozen raindrops and occurs when the layer of freezing air along the surface is thicker. This causes the raindrops to freeze before reaching the ground.

Where the two official pages word it differently

The Weather Service's own pages word the formation story two ways.

The Northern Indiana page, in its NSSL excerpts, starts from snowflakes melting. The Blacksburg page starts from liquid raindrops, and keys the difference on the thickness of the freezing layer.

Both wordings end at the same bottom line printed at the top of this page: sleet freezes before it lands and bounces; freezing rain freezes on contact and glazes.

This page prints both wordings, each under its own page's name, rather than blending them into one mechanism.

Snow, in short

The Northern Indiana page covers snow briefly this way: precipitation continues to fall as snow when the temperature remains at or below 32 degrees F from the cloud base to the ground — in other words, flakes that never melt on the way down.

Freezing rain is one cause of glazed road surfaces; black ice is the broader road condition covered on this site's page “What Is Black Ice? — In Plain Words.”

General information only.