What is the difference between snow and sleet?

Snow and sleet are both meteorological phenomena, both belong to precipitation, and both are low-temperature weather phenomena.

The main differences between the two are as follows:

1. The physical properties and physical forms of precipitation are different: it is completely solid water when it snows, and its temperature is 0 degrees Celsius lower than the freezing point of water; The sleet drips a mixture of ice and water, that is, water with the transition property from liquid water to solid water, and the temperature is around freezing point, that is, slightly higher or lower than 0 degrees Celsius.

2. Different weather conditions: when it snows, the ground temperature must be lower than 3 degrees Celsius, otherwise it will be rain or sleet. Only when the ground temperature is lower than 3 degrees Celsius, the ice cubes formed in the sky will not melt into liquid water; When sleet comes, the ground temperature is usually 3 degrees Celsius or between 3 degrees Celsius and 4 degrees Celsius. Under such temperature conditions, the ice cubes at high altitude will not completely melt into liquid water, but have melted a part when they fall near the ground, and then form an ice-water mixture.

3. The nature of meteorology is different: in meteorology, precipitation is divided into rainfall and snowfall. Snow is completely snow, which is completely different from rainfall; Sleet is a transitional property from rainfall to snowfall, and it also has some meteorological and geophysical characteristics of rainfall.