GC: n

S: http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/exhibits/disasters/blizzard.htm (last access: 25 June 2015); http://www2.epa.gov/region8-waterops/emergencies-and-security-natural-disasters (last access: 25 June 2015).

N: 1. c.1300, slete, either from an unrecorded Old English *slete, *slyte, related to Middle High German sloz, Middle Low German sloten (plural) “hail,” from Proto-Germanic *slautjan- (cognates: dialectal Norwegian slutr, Danish slud, Swedish sloud “sleet”), from root *slaut-.
2. Precipitation of mixed rain and snow, mixed rain and hail or snow melting as it falls.
3. Depending on the region, precipitation of rain and snow mixed, or rain and hail, or rain and ice pellets, or melting snow, or sudden and briel rainfall with wind and hail. In this case, it means cellisca in Spanish and grésil in French.
4. Drops of rain or drizzle that freeze into ice as they fall. They are usually smaller than 0.3 inches in diameter. Official weather observations list sleet as “ice pellets.” In some parts of the country “sleet” refers to a mixture of ice pellets and freezing rain.
5. Precipitation of small, partially melted grains of ice. As raindrops fall from clouds, they pass through layers of air at different temperatures. If they pass through a layer with a temperature below the freezing point, they turn into sleet. Snowflakes that have melted by passing through a warm layer will turn into sleet if they then pass through a freezing layer. Sleet often falls together with snow and rain, and may deposit an icy coating on exposed surfaces. Sleet occurs only during the winter, while hail, a different form of icy precipitation, may fall at any time of the year.
6. Middle English: of German origin; probably relared to Middle Low German sloten (plural) “hail” and German Schlosse “hailstone”.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=sleet&searchmode=none (last access: 5 September 2014). 2. METEOTERM/IMV – International Meteorological Vocabulary, WMO – No. 182 (last access: 15 July 2015); GDT. 3. TERMIUMPLUS; FCB. 4. Infoplease – http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/weather/sleet.html (last access: 2 November 2013). 5. OD – http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/es/definicion/ingles/sleet?q=sleet (last access: 2 November 2013).

SYN:
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CR: freezing fog, frost, glaze, hail, hailstone, hoar frost, rime, small hail.