SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- In the past week we’ve seen just about every type of wintery precipitation type. The type of precipitation we get is determined on how much air above freezing there is in the atmosphere.
A good portion of precipitation in the Midwest starts as snow when it comes out of the cloud, but when it passes through warmer air it will melt and become rain, freezing rain, sleet.
If there isn’t air above-freezing below the cloud base, it will fall as rain. If there are freezing temperatures near the surface, precipitation will be “supercooled” and freeze upon contact with whatever surface on the ground.
Sleet goes through a much shallower warm slot, fully refreezing before getting to the surface, where it will likely bounce before accumulating as wetter snow.
While winter storms aren't particularly an area of large concern this morning, but it's never too early to learn about differences between a winter storm and a blizzard because, fingers crossed, we see some of each in Michiana this year.
Now a blizzard is a type of winter storm, but both have different classifications according to the National Weather Service's watches and warnings that they put out for each.
A winter storm has to reach 6 or more inches in 12 hours, or 8 or more in 24, you could also have more than a quarter of an inch of freezing rain or a half inch of sleet. But you don’t need a lot of snow to have a blizzard, a blizzard is more categorized by a wind component.
For a blizzard you need sustained winds at or above 35 mph, combined with “significant” snowfall causing visibility under a quarter mile for at least three hours.
Again, not anything you need to worry about now, but a winter storm measures mainly the snow of a system, and a blizzard measures the wind and its impacts.