What is the difference between sleet and freezing rain?

Both sleet and freezing rain can cause dangerously icy conditions, but what's the difference? AccuWeather's Bree Guy explains.

Transcript

00:00Well, we have more than one storm that is looking to drop some nasty winter weather.

00:07So we thought it would be a good idea to break down the different types of ice, freezing

00:11rain versus sleet.

00:13And with these events, we're looking to see both.

00:16Let's start off with sleet and the highest layers of the atmosphere.

00:20It is still quite cold, freezing in fact, and as that precipitation falls, it does start

00:25off a little bit more solid.

00:27When it runs into that shallow warm layer, it quickly unfreezes.

00:31But then as soon as we get to the surface, there's a deep cold layer.

00:36So there's a little bit more time for that precipitation to re-freeze, though not fully.

00:41Sleet, if you do try to pick it up, it is a little bit harder, but overall it does cause

00:47some slick conditions.

00:49Freezing, on the other hand, freezing rain, we still have that cold layer in the upper

00:54levels of the atmosphere, but there's a much deeper warm layer that that precipitation

00:59is falling through.

01:00So it's falling, mostly as rain, for quite some time, and then it runs into a shallow

01:05cold layer near the surface.

01:08Not a whole lot of time to re-freeze, but it can freeze on contact, and a lot of problems

01:14can come from freezing rain, and it doesn't take a lot.

01:17When we start to see upwards to a tenth, two-tenths of an inch of ice, that proves to be hazardous.

01:23Slick roads, slick sidewalks, and then we get to the disruptive zone, that's over two-tenths

01:29of an inch of ice, all the way up to a half an inch.

01:32Some trees start to break, and power outages start to occur, and anywhere over a half an

01:37inch of ice does have the potential to bring significant ice impacts.

01:42Ice and snow, though, that's what's ahead, and make sure that you are taking it slow,

01:46and of course, following all winter safety tips.