SC.5.E.7.4 Forms of Precipitation

SC.5.E.7.4: Distinguish among the various forms of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, and hail), making connections to the weather in a particular place and time.

What kinds of precipitation are there?

Precipitation is water that falls to the Earth from clouds in the sky. There are four forms of precipitation: rain, snow, sleet, and hail. The biggest difference between the four forms of precipitation is temperature. If the air temperature is warm, only rain or hail will fall. If the air temperature is cold, snow and sleet might fall. Sleet is often mixed with rain since both rain and sleet fall at temperatures above freezing (32 °F/0 °C). Snow will fall only at temperatures below freezing.

Rain is of course the easiest to recognize. Rain is liquid water that falls from clouds. Rain is common in Florida, and something that we see almost every day during the summer months. Since it is warm during the summer months, hail might also fall. 

Hail is made up of ice that can be as small as peas and as large as golf balls, tennis balls, and even larger. Hail will only fall when it is warm and is almost always the result of a violent thunderstorm.

Snow is a solid form of water that falls at freezing temperatures. Snow is easily recognized. In Florida, snow occasionally falls in the northern part of the state, and sometimes as far south as Tampa-Orlando. Snow rarely falls in the southern part of the state and has never been recorded in the Florida Keys.

Sleet is made up of ice pellets that fall from the sky. Sleet is often referred to as frozen rain: it begins a rain falling from a cloud but falls through a layer of freezing temperatures. Sleet only falls when it is cold and falls in areas like snow. It is sometimes seen in the northern part of the state and is very rare in the southern part of Florida.