Why does it rain and not snow?
399461
Sometimes its warm up in the atmosphere, but cold down here. So when it seems like it might snow, it comes out as a wet rain. Sometimes its caused by warm fronts and cold fronts and high pressure and cold pressure that come threw and change the weather.
492491
Water vapor is transparent (for most purposes) and so mere humidity in the atmosphere can't be a cloud. Since clouds don't have motors keeping them in the air, and yet stay there for hours in some cases, they can't be solid, for if they were, they'd fall out of the sky and we'd find cloud bits laying around on the ground. And the same is true for liquid as well. \n\nSo what's a cloud? Mostly, it's very small bits, so small that air currents can keep them in the air. The bits can be solid (eg, ice crystals of which snowflakes are examples), or liquid (eg, little drops of water, of which rain is an example). In either case, enough of these small things begin to look white as light passes thorough them and is reflected and refracted and generally diverted. Kind of like the effect of fine particulate suspensions in water. They are sometimes referred to as milky looking. Indeed, milk is white for a similar reason.\n\nThese are usually formed around dust bits, for real. High humidity (forced by cooling temperatures) produces supercooling (ie, ready to condense, if a trigger can be found). The dust motes provides the trigger. With updraft winds, a condensed drop can grow pretty large. And if it goes high enough, and gets cold enough, the drop can freeze (and thus make hail). If the orignal condensation is sufficiently cold, then water will be added to an ice crystal. With the proper history, such crystals become snowflakes.
311001
It does, tho not necessarily rain that's made of water. It could be acid rain or something like that.
353812
The rain falls from lower altitudes where the ambient temperatures are warmer. The hail starts out as rain but high winds carry it upward to higher altitudes where it freezes due to lower temps. The hail stones fall and get wet as they pass through the warmer rain clouds, then they are swept up again to refreeze, thus growing larger in diameter. This process repeats until the hail stones get heavy enough that the upward winds cannot carry them up again. They fall to the ground. Large hail stones indicate high winds.
13134
What causes rain to turn into sleet? when it's raining and there is a layer of very cold air in the atmosphere, usually 32 or below, it will turn into frozen precipitation, whether is Snow, sleet. when it snows, the whole atmosphere is at 32 or below, even though your temp at ground is let's say 35. what's matter is the atmosphere temperature. when it sleets, there's got to be a layer of cold air 32 or below, then another layer of 32 or hight ( that's when it turns back into rain) and then, another layer of cold air just above ground level or tree height, that's when you get the sleet.
274639
could be snow, could be +10 or +20 degrees, could be a little bit of rain.  One never knows in the spring time!
825154
Sleet is a mix of water and snow.  Freezing rain is more interesting.  Usually water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius.  But if it's completely free of bubbles and dust particles that ice crystals can start to form on, like in the upper atmosphere, it can cool down to minus 40 Celsius before it freezes.   This is supercooled water.  The moment supercooled water hits a solid object, like the ground or an aeroplane wing, it freezes.  Freezing rain is supercooled water, and it's very dangerous to aircraft.
687628
Rain is filled with pullotion. the purest natrual water can be found in the ice and the noth and south poles..
149401
when it rains, it pours.\n\nHope you don't live on/near a hillside.
406941
Neither. When cold air hits wet, moist air it chills it until it can no longer hold the moisture and you have rain. \nLook at a map of the U.S. The green areas are all along the coast where the ocean is warmer than the land and the air from the land causes rain. Clouds are just fog and cannot clash.\n\nOr, sometimes it is because the Thunder God, Thor, strikes his mighty hammer and causes Odin to send down torrents of rain on Loki's head. Take your pick!
94909
It actually has to do with the dryness of the air between the storm and the area just above the ground and the difference in pressure between the storm front and the storm itself. As the super low pressures meet the moist air in the storm, they cause it to equalize rapidly, which, as we know from our nitrous oxide cans, causes the temperature to drop rapidly. This is what needs to happen to form ice crystals, not just ice. As the snow falls to the air close to the earth, it will melt back to rain or fog if the air below is too moist. The UK, like Louisiana and Florida, is known for having extreme humidity levels and low altitude. The air on the ground can be below zero, while the air below the storm (where the snow falls into first) may be wet and warm. Another thing that may affect snowfall is that the pressure close to the ground causes the snow to quickly expand and vaporize into fog and invisible humidity. This is where your altitude comes into play. Lower altitude, higher pressure. Altitude may not matter, though, if the air is dry and cold enough, just below the storm. It snows in some deserts where air is dry (which loses heat easily) and the altitude may even be sea level.
288151
Temps close to the freezing point. If you have noticed often when rain is changing to snow quickly,the flakes at times are huge!
945368
I live at the shore in NJ. We rarely get snow because the salt air turns the snow to rain.
718599
As the water vapor cools along with the air, it begins to go into a liquid state and will collect on anything it can, usually dust particles in the air. From there, it depends on the amount of water and the air temperature whether you will get dew, rain or snow.
913491
Well snow is white because it is a frozen sliver of moisture.We christians accept white as a sign of purity.Interestingly if you watch snow falling,no two particles ever collide(till they reach the ground)If you stand underneath falling snow and look directly up,the falling snow won't look white(try it)
364366
As air rises to get over the mountain, it cools.  Cooler air can't carry as much water vapor as warmer air, so cloud droplets form.
1170597
It takes time to transfer the thermal energy to the snow.  Snow also has an insulating effect on lower layers of snow, making it difficult to transfer heat there, making snow more persistent than would be expected.