How can it snow with temperatures above 32 ? As forecasters one of the first temperature profiles we check when forecasting in the winter is the upper level temperatures. In other words we need to determine what type of precipitation will fall before we worry about accumulation or flooding. A “normal” vertical structure of the atmosphere turns colder as you go higher. We are talking about the Troposphere, in which all weather occurs. Troposphere means turning, it is vertically mixed. If the temperature at 5000 feet is 28 degrees (F) and the temperature at 10,000 feet is 20 degrees and the temperatures at 18,000 feet is 10 degrees then if precipitation is dropped through that column of the atmosphere it would stay frozen and have to fall as snow. If the temperatures on the ground are above freezing then it might not stick or stick for long but it would still fall as snow. I have seen it snow in March with a surface temperature over 40 degrees. When we are experiencing sleet or freezing rain then you can bet that the atmosphere is not “normal”. When sleet falls there is a warm layer (above freezing) in the mid levels of the atmosphere. The precipitation starts as snow then melts as it falls through the warm layer then re-freezes as sleet and falls to the ground. Sleet falls as ice pellets that bounce off of your windshield and off of the ground. When freezing rain occurs that means the atmosphere is cold in the top and even mid levels but is above freezing in the lower levels but the surface temperature is below freezing. Freezing rain falls as liquid and freezes on contact with the ground, electrical wires and trees etc. Freezing rain is the stuff that no one can drive in at all. Weather balloons and reports from pilots provide temperatures of various layers of the atmosphere. Satellites are beginning to aid in that process as well. Next time it snows, you may not like it but you’ll know all is right with the atmosphere.  ¶ 11:36 PM