Rimed snow refers to
snow
Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...
flakes that are partially or completely coated in tiny frozen water droplets called '
rime'. Rime forms on a snowflake when it passes through a
super-cooled cloud
In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...
. Snowflakes that are heavily rimed typically produce very heavy and wet snow, with snow to liquid ratios in the 5-1 (i.e. five inches of snow per inch of rain) to 9-1 range.
Rimed snow has been found to provide greater initial stability for a snow layer. However, it also allows thicker, and therefore less stable, snow layers to build up. It could be argued that these cancel each other out.
There has been research into the effect of rimed snow on
avalanche
An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a Grade (slope), slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be triggered spontaneously, by factors such as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, othe ...
s.
See also
*
Graupel
Graupel (; ), also called soft hail or hominy snow or granular snow or snow pellets, is precipitation that forms when supercooled water droplets in air are collected and freeze on falling snowflakes, forming balls of crisp, opaque rime.
Gra ...
References
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Frost and rime
Snow
Precipitation
Forms of water