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About Solid Precipitation


Solid precipitation originates in clouds where air temperatures are below freezing (0˚C, 32˚F), and generally where ground temperatures are less than 5˚C (41˚F). Solid precipitation has a variety of forms including snow, snow grains, snow pellets, diamond dust, hail, and ice pellets:

The WMO intercomparisons of methods of measuring solid precipitation have focussed on falling snow and did not include hail.


Image from the Bentley Collection, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison



Forms of frozen precipitation. Left to right: hail, graupel, sleet, snow. (From the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory)