Glenn Burns at Channel 2 Action News warns that we’re in for about 26 hours of subfreezing temps, beginning about 5 a.m. Wednesday. The thermometer should head above 32 as of about 7 a.m. on Thursday and will climb into the mid-40s by midafternoon. But Thursday morning on the roads will be dreadful: don’t look for real rush-hour relief until Friday morning.
The progression: Rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow
The kind of precipitation we receive depends on the temperature of the air from the ground up to about 20,000 feet. It gets colder as you go higher, usually, but sometimes a layer of warmer air gets trapped between ground and clouds, produsing a melting/freezing effect as the precipitation falls.
Rain: Frozen precipitation melts in the air and reaches the ground as rain.
Freezing rain: Precipitation melts and falls as rain and then freezes on cold surfaces.
Sleet: Melts in warm air and then refreezes before reaching the surface.
Snow: Falls through cold air and reaches the surface.
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