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Freezing rain – this involves supercooled rain that falls to the ground, is exposed to the cold ground surface, and freezes. As you know, this is quite dangerous if you're traveling on the road when this happens.
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Sleet – you commonly see sleet when the temperatures are near freezing. Sleet is defined as a mixture of snow and rain that can be caused by partial melting of flakes as they fall.
MEASURING PRECIPITATION The branch of meteorology associated with measuring precipitation is called watershed hydrology. The goal of these researchers is to find the best ways to measure precipitation so that it is accurate. With respect to rain, it is often measured with a rain gauge. Most rain gauges have some type of funnel that drops water into some collection chamber. The amount of water in this chamber is measured automatically or periodically and then recorded. You need to know the size of the funnel and the size of the collection chamber to know exactly how much rainfall the rain gauge is recording. The standard rain gauge or SRG is not your typical small glass tube you put outside your backyard. It is a large metal cylinder with a funnel to gather rain. There is a measuring tool in the middle that can take up a total of 2 inches of rain. Beyond that it must dump the rain into a larger outer cylinder. Figure 21 shows you this rain gauge:
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