| Term | Definition |
|---|
| precipitation | water falling from clouds in the form of rain, ice, or snow |
| coalescence | when air temperature is above freezing and minute droplets suspended in midair collide with bigger droplets to form bigger droplets until they can no longer overcome gravity and fall as rain |
| ice crystal process | when supercooled water droplets and ice crystals exist above freezing. the supercooled droplets freeze onto the crystals and the crystals grow until they fall |
| wet snow | when crystals falling from the cloud melt because of the temperature of the air below the cloud |
| dry snow | when falling crystals remain frozen |
| rain | drops of water falling in temperatures above freezing |
| drizzle | when drop size is at least 1/125 of an inch |
| freezing rain | form when supercooled water droplets fall as rain and turn to ice or ice pellets when they meet colder air |
| snow | form when temperature is below freezing and water vapor changes directly to ice without first condensing |
| sublimation | water vapor changes directly to ice |
| sleet or ice pellets | grains of ice |
| rime or glaze | when supercooled rain cools to below freezing but remains a liquid and then hits the frozen ground and instantly forms an icy coating |
| snowflake | starts as a single crystal of snow which forms when water vapor deposits directly as ice onto a grain of airborn dust crystal formation increases as temperature falls |
| blizzard | snow and strong winds of 35 mph or higher and temperature is 10F or lower |
| sleet | form when snow passes through a layer of warm air melts and then refreezes near the ground |
| hail | falling balls of ice |
| hail embryo | forms when water freezes on a small ice pellet of snow |
| dew | beads of water on ground cover |
| frost | icy deposits when temperature drops below freezing after the dew has formed and then dew drops thus freeze |
| fog | low level stratus clouds |
| radiation fog | develops at night when winds are light and the sky is clear (so the earth radiates large amounts of heat) |
Combine with other sets
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