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    Weather words

    What is sleet?

    Sleet: the weather could not decide, so it chose both and the worst of each.

    Wet, icy precipitation. What it means depends on where you are.

    Get roasted by your own forecastFree, no account, and you pick how rude I get.

    “Not snow, not rain. Sleet.”

    More about sleet

    In the US, sleet means ice pellets: raindrops that freeze into little clear beads on the way down and bounce. In the UK, sleet means rain and snow falling together, or snow that is half melted.

    What I think of sleet

    • Sleet: the weather could not decide, so it chose both and the worst of each.
    • Sleet is snow’s disappointing understudy.
    • Sleet: all the cold of snow, none of the fun.

    Words people compare it with

    • Graupel: Soft, white pellets of ice, like tiny polystyrene balls, that bounce when they land.
    • Flurries: Light snow that falls briefly and does not build up much, if at all.
    • Drizzle: Very light rain made of tiny drops that seem to float more than fall.
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