Winter Precipitation Explainer

Rockville... a new covered bridge will be built.

There has been mention of some wintry mischief in our forecast from the storm team the last few days.

Throughout the winter... you'll hear them talk about freezing rain... sleet... and snow.

Storm team 10's david siple explains how the atmosphere can give us different types of winter precipitation.

All weather happens in the troposphere which goes up about 5-9 miles in the sky.

Temperature usually decreases with height.

However with certain weather systems, that can change.

And this could be the difference between rain, freezing rain, sleet, and snow.

If the air is above 32 degrees in the entire column of air, it will fall as rain.

We sometimes get a very shallow cold layer at the surface, while the mid-levels are above freezing, we will likely get freezing rain.

If the freezing layer at the surface is deeper, that rain melts, refreezes, and then falls as sleet.

And if the entire layer is below freezing, then snow will fall.

Computer weather models do a fairly good job of showing meteorologists what the temperature is at each level.

However it is not perfect.

So when you hear the storm team talk about the possibility of winter weather in the forecast, always be ready for whatever mother nature gives us.

In the wthi studio, i'm storm team 10 meteorologist david siple.

Tonight cloudy.

Chance of rain in the evening, then chance of rain and snow after midnight.

Lows in the lower 30s.

Northwest winds up to 10 mph with gusts to around 20 mph increasing to north 15 to 20 mph with gusts to around 30 mph after midnight.

Chance of precipitation 50 percent.

Monday colder.

Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of snow.

Highs in the mid 30s.

Northwest