CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) – A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for all of western Massachusetts through 4 a.m. Friday.

Watch Live: Winter Storm Tracker

Watch a live forecast tracker as a severe storm covers parts of the U.S. with snow and winter weather.

Live Radar

Snowfall Forecast

What is the difference between sleet and freezing rain?

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 melts as it falls through a layer above freezing and then falls back through another layer below freezing. The rain drop freezes and falls to the ground as sleet.

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