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.
All three involve precipitation in the clouds, but each requires just the right set of circumstances to occur. One difference between sleet and hail is the time of year in which each occurs. Typically, hail is most often a summer occurrence, while sleet occurs mostly in winter. Youâre much more likely to see hail in warm and oppressive weather where a sudden thunderstorm occurs.
Most precipitation begins as snow high in the atmosphere, where the temperature stays below 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), the freezing point of water. As that snow falls, the temperature of the air and land determine whether the precipitation remains as snow, melts into rain, melts then refreezes into sleet, or covers the land in a treacherous layer of ice.