Mid-February 2014 North American winter storm of further-north Georgia received unusually heavy snows. Precipitation started as light rain late on the 10th, with significant snow by the following morning while still above freezing, turning back to light rain before ending by mid-day. More light rain began after midnight, changing to snow as temperatures fell, then to sleet, freezing rain, back to sleet again before another significant snow by the morning of the 13th. Areas north of the city generally got mostly snow and sleet, while a large swath from the south metro area eastward got the heaviest ice accumulations, though a dry slot at mid-day proved
Backscatter diameter of the target multiplied by its inherent reflective properties, provided the wavelength is larger than the particle diameter (Rayleigh scattering). Water is almost 4 times more reflective than ice but droplets are much smaller than snow flakes or hail stones. So the backscattering is dependent on a mix of these two factors. The strongest backscatter comes from hail and large graupel (solid ice) due to their sizes, but non-Rayleigh (Mie scattering) effects can confuse interpretation. Another strong return is from melting snow or wet sleet, as they combine size and water reflectivity. They often show up as much higher