What are snow grains as Met office warns UK temperatures to plunge to -2C
Share:
Snow is expected to fall over the coming week in the United Kingdom. But in what form?. With temperatures expected to plunge to sub-zero the Met Office, has warned of the possibility of snow grains falling in some areas. The Met Office predicted snow grains may fall across the south, but what are they?.
![[Snow grains fall mostly from Stratus clouds or from fog]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/16/13/2190920646.jpg)
The Met Office describe snow grains as “a very small form of solid precipitation” similar to a grain of rice. Snow grains appear as very small white and opaque grains of ice. These grains are fairly flat or elongated with a diameter generally less than 1mm.
They are the solid equivalent to drizzle. Although frozen and occurring when the temperature is between approximately 0 °C and –10 °C, the other properties of this precipitation correspond to drizzle. Snow grains fall mostly from Stratus clouds or from fog, and never in the form of a shower. Except in the mountains, snow grains usually fall in small quantities.
When the grains hit hard ground, they do not bounce. Snowflakes are composed of individual ice crystals that have collided within a cloud and frozen together, producing an infinite variety of forms. At very low temperatures, snowflakes remain in a powdery “dry” form, such as those that fell at the beginning of the snow storm in south-east England on Monday.
At higher temperatures, closer to 0C, the snowflakes stick together to become larger and wetter. This type of snow can easily turn to rain and sleet. Wet snow is more common in Britain than the powdered variety, which famously interfered with the hydraulic systems of British Rail trains when it fell in February 1991, and will forever after been known as the “wrong kind of snow”.
Share:
More for You
Top Followed
You Might Also Like
