February 2007 North American blizzard Due to the three-dimensional nature of the atmosphere, warm air was poised to overtake the cold air closer to the ground, causing precipitation to melt, then refreeze as either sleet or freezing rain. As temperatures hovered around freezing on the southern edge of the storm track, light snow accompanied freezing rain and sleet. The freezing rain coated all surfaces with thick layers of ice, including power lines and tree limbs which break under the additional weight. Some locations in the Mid-Atlantic received several inches of sleet. Four inches (100 mm) of sleet caused travel difficulties and hampered cleanup efforts in
Hail spike the multiple path at a later time than the energy that came back directly from the hail to the radar. Both are however on the same radial angle from the radar as the antenna did not have the time to turn significantly. The multipath echoes are then analyzed on the radar display as echoes extending in a radial direction behind the actual location of the hail/heavy rain core. The loss of energy by due to multiple reflections means weaker return echoes. The hail spike region has thus comparatively quite weaker echoes than the echoes directly from the hail or heavy