Monday, December 03, 2007

Lessons In Meteorology

We're in the middle of our first substantial storm of the winter season. As the Weather Channel puts it, we're getting a "wintry" mix. We've had 4 of the following 5 in the past 24 hours and I just came in from spreading rock salt on the driveway and sidewalk.

rain • noun
Water that is condensed from the aqueous vapor in the atmosphere and falls to earth in drops more than .5 mm in diameter.

freezing rain • noun
Rain that falls as a liquid but freezes into glaze upon contact with the ground.

sleet • noun
Precipitation in the form of ice pellets created by the freezing of rain as it falls (distinguished from hail).

hail • noun
Showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or balls of ice more than .5 mm in diameter, falling from a cumulonimbus cloud (distinguished from sleet).

snow • noun
Precipitation in the form of ice crystals, mainly of intricately branched, hexagonal form and often agglomerated into snowflakes, formed directly from the freezing of the water vapor in the air. Compare ice crystals, snow grains, snow pellets.
This is a typical storm that we would see in April and the collateral damage is fallen tree limbs and electricity outages. The last time we had freezing rain, I ended up falling in the driveway like a cartoon character slipping on a banana peel and bruising my elbow and ribs. I won't do that again!
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3 comments:

evilganome said...

It's currently slushing out in our neck of the woods. Great day to spend indoors catching up on things, not such a great day to have to go to work. It ought to be nice and slippery by the time I head home.

ArichNY said...

In my neck of the woods? You don't want to know. You already hate me. [Hint: I almost got a sunburn today.]

Doralong said...

Well we're looking for 5 or so inches tonight- blech!! I know it's wimpy compared to you folks up north.

Cold and I don't work too well together.. I'm wimpy like that.

Be safe out there!