Freezing rain impact with a field below; all passengers and crew were killed. Freezing rain Freezing rain is the name given to rain precipitation maintained at temperatures below freezing by the ambient air mass that causes freezing on contact with surfaces. Unlike sleet, a mixture of rain and snow, ice pellets, or hail, freezing rain is made entirely of liquid droplets. The raindrops become supercooled while passing through a sub-freezing layer of air hundreds of meters above the ground, and then freeze upon impact with any surface they encounter, including the ground, trees, electrical wires, aircraft, and automobiles. The resulting ice, called
Hail spike Hail spike A hail spike or three body scatter spike (TBSS) is an artifact on a weather radar display indicative of large hail. They are identified by a spike of weak reflectivity echoes that extend out from a thunderstorm, and away from the radar site. Generally known as hail spikes, these are the result of energy from the radar hitting hail, or very heavy rain, and being reflected to the ground, where they reflect back to the hail and then to the radar as in the image on the left. This results in the radar picking up the energy from