Ice Rain
It was a regular Sunday, the 6th of December 2020. Had a nice meal, a wonderful nap and then sat in front of the TV to watch some movies.
Around evening, the weather was abit off. Clouds became grey and it was super windy. I didn't bothered much as I thought it was just a regular rain but to my surpr3it wasn't.
It started raining heavily but instead of just rain sounds, my mum and I heard stones dropping sound on our zinc roof. We then went out to have a look. As I was standing and wondering, something hit my face but I didn't make a big deal thinking it was just a rock.
Then my dad told me to head to the playground which was behind our house. It was still raining heavily. My dad then reached his hand out, clutched something in his hand and gave it to me... You know what... It was ICE!!!!
Literally ice rain. The ice were tiny and it only lasted for few minutes. The rain water was super cold like that of a waterfall. Of course I got super excited.
But how is it possible? I Googled on 'ice rain'. Here's what I found. Another name for it is 'sleet' which means rain that contains some ice as it falls.
Sleet is type of precipitation distinct from snow, hail, and freezing rain. It forms under certain weather conditions, when a temperature inversion causes snow to melt, then refreeze.
Sleet occurs when falling snow melts and then refreezes before it hits the ground.
To understand how sleet forms, it helps to know how snow forms.The air closest to Earth’s surface—the layer where weather happens—is called the troposphere. In general, the higher you go in the troposphere, the colder the air becomes.
During precipitation formation, if temperatures are at or below freezing, 0°C (32°F), at cloud level, water in the air freezes into ice crystals, and the crystals stick together to make snow. The snow starts to fall, and if the air column is freezing cold all the way down from the clouds to the ground, the precipitation stays frozen. It simply falls as snow.
Sometimes, however, a temperature inversion occurs. Normally, the temperature decreases with increasing altitude. A temperature inversion is when a layer of warm air intrudes between the ground and the clouds.
Under these conditions, when the falling snow reaches the layer of warm air, it melts. Then it hits the layer of cold air just above Earth’s surface and refreezes. This all happens very fast, and the result is tiny ice pellets called sleet.
It's kinda hard to understand this situation but it was one great experience and I really enjoyed it.
Video taken by myself at the playground
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