CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) – The latest storm brought a wintry mix to western Massachusetts.

There were a variety of different types of precipitation with our latest storm. There was rain, which falls as rain from the cloud to the ground with temperatures that are above freezing at all levels of the atmosphere.

Freezing rain occurs when rain falls through a cold layer, right at the ground, and freezes on contact, causing a layer of ice to form.  

Sleet forms when snow falls from the cloud and melts as it falls through a layer above freezing and then falls back through another layer below freezing. The raindrop freezes and falls to the ground as a piece of ice.

Snow falls from the cloud as a snowflake and stays snow all the way to the ground when all layers of the atmosphere are below freezing.