re: Regarding this winter storm about to hit the South.....

quote:

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Freezing rain falls as liquid and then freezes later.

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It's warmer air aloft. The great enemy of southern snow. Basically the denser cold air goes to the surface first and if the cold air mass is deep enough it fill in that warm nose a couple thousand feet up.

So you get liquid near the surface and it lands as rain and then freezes on the surface.

ETA: Obviously it's just rain if the surface is above freezing too.