JACKSON, Wyo. — As another weather system moves into the valley, residents might observe a wide spectrum of precipitation existing between raindrops and snowflakes.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has a handy online glossary for those interested in the nuances of the language reflecting the different phenomena. See how NWS defines the differences between the types of precipitation below:
Freezing drizzle: A drizzle that falls as a liquid but freezes into glaze or rime upon contact with the cold ground or surface structures. Reaches the surface in the form of drops that are less than 0.5 millimeters in diameter
Freezing fog: A fog the droplets of which freeze upon contact with exposed objects and form a coating of rime and/or glaze.
Freezing rain: Rain that falls as a liquid but freezes into glaze upon contact with the ground. Reaches the surface in the form of drops that are greater than 0.5 millimeters in diameter.
Graupel, or snow pellets: Precipitation, usually of brief duration, consisting of crisp, white, opaque ice particles, round or conical in shape and about 2 to 5 mm in diameter.
Hail: Showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or balls of ice more than 5 mm in diameter, falling from a cumulonimbus cloud. Hail size measures the diameter of the hailstones. Warnings and reports may report hail size through comparisons with real-world objects that correspond to certain diameters:
| Description | Diameter (inches) |
| Pea | 0.25 |
| Marble or Mothball | 0.50 |
| Penny or Dime | 0.75 |
| Nickel | 0.88 |
| Quarter | 1.00 |
| Half Dollar | 1.25 |
| Walnut or Ping Pong Ball | 1.50 |
| Golfball | 1.75 |
| Hen’s Egg | 2.00 |
| Tennis Ball | 2.50 |
| Baseball | 2.75 |
| Tea Cup | 3.00 |
| Grapefruit | 4.00 |
| Softball | 4.50 |
Mixed precipitation: Any of the following combinations of freezing and frozen precipitation: snow and sleet, snow and freezing rain, or sleet alone. Rain may also be present.
Sleet, or ice pellets: Sleet is defined as pellets of ice composed of frozen or mostly frozen raindrops or refrozen partially melted snowflakes. These pellets of ice usually bounce after hitting the ground or other hard surfaces. Heavy sleet is a relatively rare event defined as an accumulation of ice pellets covering the ground to a depth of 0.5 inches or more.
Does that clear things up? Many of the distinctions are based on size measurements, along with at which point freezing or melting occurs in the journey from cloud to ground. Keep an eye out for different kinds of precipitation, and stay warm out there.
