Rain and snow mixed

Precipitation that reaches the ground as both liquid raindrops and snowflakes, often shifting between rain and snow over short periods or distances.

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Melting layer: An atmospheric layer warm enough to melt snowflakes as they fall through it. Partial melting in this layer can leave liquid drops alongside surviving snowflakes.
Sleet: Small ice pellets formed when raindrops or melted snow refreeze before reaching the ground. Sleet is solid ice, unlike the liquid-and-snow mixture described here.
Weather radar: A remote-sensing system that detects precipitation using reflected radio waves. Radar signatures can change where snow partially melts into a mixed phase.
Wintry mix: An informal forecast term for a combination of winter precipitation types. Forecasts may use this broader label when rain and snow occur together.
Wet-bulb temperature: The temperature air would reach through evaporative cooling at constant pressure. It helps determine whether falling snow melts near the surface.
Freezing rain: Liquid precipitation that freezes on contact with surfaces at or below freezing. It reaches the ground as liquid only, then forms a coating of ice.
Precipitation gauge: An instrument that collects and measures precipitation reaching a location. Liquid and solid components can complicate measurement of mixed precipitation.
Rain and snow: A meteorological precipitation type consisting of simultaneous liquid rain and falling snow. This standard observation category names the mixture directly.
Precipitation phase: The physical state in which precipitation reaches the ground, such as rain, snow, or freezing rain. This mixture is one outcome of atmospheric conditions controlling precipitation phase.
Rain: Liquid water precipitation that falls from clouds as drops. Rain alone has no snowflakes mixed into the surface precipitation.