Technology

On a given day in the winter in St. Louis, Missouri it began snowing in the morning, the snow changed to rain by noon, later in the afternoon sleet was falling which turned to snow, and by evening rain was freezing on bridges and roadways. Briefly explain how such a sequence of precipitation might occur.
 Changes in the forms of precipitations are likewise dependent on different factors including the climate or weather, temperature, air saturation and geographical location among others. The 2 mechanism involved in this process are called the Bergeron process (precipitation from cold clouds along the middle latitude) and collisioncoalescence (warm-cloud process mostly associated with the tropics).

The 2 general types of precipitation are the liquid and frozen form. Liquid precipitation for example can be in the form of rain and drizzle while frozen one includes snow, sleets, ice pellets and hailstones. Precipitations vary in their droplet size or diameter as well as hardness upon impact and colors ranging from opaque white to transparent and translucent.

In the given situation above, the first form of precipitation that occurred is in the form of snow. Snow occurs during winter times as there is cold or near freezing temperature which causes precipitation to solidify and form crystals like snows. Snow in the morning occurs because the temperature is cold enough for snow to form at winter time.  By noontime, precipitation changes to rain which is a liquid type. This happened because the heat of the sun at noontime caused the snow to melt and change into rain. By the afternoon the precipitation has changed to sleet which is known as a partially melted snow or mixture of rain and snow. We can expect this to occur in the afternoon as temperature gradually starts to get cooler. This may include rain that gradually freezes and small amounts of snow. At evening as the sun is out, the cold air started to freeze the snows and rain along bridges and roadway.