Definition of reservoir. 1 : a place where something is kept in store: such asa : an artificial lake where water is collected and kept in quantity for useb : a part of an apparatus in which a liquid is heldc : supply, store a large reservoir of educated people.
Four types of winter precipitation. While all forms of precipitation start as snow high up in the clouds, there are four primary types that eventually reach the ground: snow, sleet, freezing rain and plain ol' rain. Snow occurs when the atmosphere is cold all the way from the clouds to down here at the surface.
In order to understand sleet, snow and freezing rain, what we would need is perhaps four to six different temperature readings at different altitudes. Â­Precipitation starts in the cloud as snow. As it falls, it may travel through a layer of air that has a temperature Â­greater than 32 F (0 C). This layer melts the snow into rain. If the temperature at ground level is below freezing, then the water may refreeze in the air, and we get sleet. Or, if the layer of sub-freezing air at ground level is thin, the precipitation falls as rain but then freezes once it touches a freezing object on the ground.