freezing rain

Rain formed by supercooled water drops, which freeze immediately on impact against a surface; whether it be the ground itself, any object located on it, or part of the fuselage and wings of an aircraft in flight. In all cases, the consequence is the same: the formation of a layer of clear, hard, and slippery ice. Conventional rain becomes freezing rain when, in its fall, it crosses a layer of air where the temperature is below 0°C, in which case the drops remain in a liquid state, but the arrangement of the water molecules changes, passing into a state of supercooling.