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Ah yes, I suppose the same thing happens here only I never see weather reports from 6000' so don't think about it. I suppose there's a fine line of only a few degrees between your ideal flying weather and freezing rain territory - have you ever had to fly in that?
Yes, there is a fine line! Ahead of a warm front, the freezing level often drops like a cliff as you go north.
I've seen the FZLVL at 8-10K at one airport and then 20 miles north it is at the surface! Not that uncommon again ahead of a warm front where I live.
Luckily, I've never gotten caught in FZRA simply because I don't even THINK about flying if there is a chance of it!! The worse I've gotten is a trace to light icing (up to 3mm) but on those occasions I always had at least 4000' of ice free air below me to escape to quickly if I had a lot more unexpectedly.
Luckily FZRA is easy to forecast and the skew-t sounding diagrams (Google it) do a good job showing what conditions are conducive to such hazardous weather (warm air on top of a thin slice of cold air near the surface).
Cold rain. It is common here in winter to wake up to those conditions. When It is like that, I can be pretty sure that a clearance is not far away. If it is snowing, then you are going to have the problems associated with snow to follow. Keeping dry and warm isn't hard.
After the snow we had here last week, there was a lot of damage to trees and the garden. Snow means extra work.
Snow, I'd prefer 20 F to 30 F though. I would take snow over rain at any temperature. I hate rain. Outdoor pursuits in snow are fun, in rain they are not.
At the 32 - 35 (0 - 2) degree range neither is particularly pleasant. Even if it snows the flakes are close enough to slush that all you get is soaked to the skin as it melts on your face and body. When it rains, and it sometimes does that at temps slightly below freezing, the 30 or 40 MPH (48 - 60KPH) southwest gales that often accompany it drives one (at least me) out of discomfort and into pure misery.
But when the temperature drops a few degrees further and we get snow, that is way better than 37 (3) and a penetrating rain.
I voted for the 30 and snow! We get a great deal of damp weather here by the lake, early Spring, late Fall, the 30's and rain can be brutal. I think I write quite a bit that I hate the "damps"!
I've experienced way too many winters where it was almost cold enough to snow and places 100 miles to the north were enjoying 6 inches of snow, but nothing besides cold rain and maybe some ice fell where I was. Give me snow!
35 and rain all the way.. you don't have to shovel rain!
True dat!
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