During precipitation formation, if temperatures are at or below freezing, 0°C (32°F), at cloud level, water in the air freezes into ice crystals, and the crystals stick together to make snow. This all happens very fast, and the result is tiny ice pellets called sleet.

Sleet is type of precipitation distinct from snow, hail, and freezing rain. It forms under certain weather conditions, when a temperature inversion causes snow to melt, then refreeze.

Precipitation forms in the clouds when water vapor condenses into bigger and bigger droplets of water. When the drops are heavy enough, they fall to the Earth. These ice crystals then fall to the Earth as snow, hail, or rain, depending on the temperature within the cloud and at the Earth’s surface.

Once the size of a raindrop gets too large, it will eventually break apart in the atmosphere back into smaller drops. This time, the surface tension loses and the large raindrop ceases to exist. Instead it pulls apart when it grows to around 4 millimeters or more.

Frontal rainfall. Stage 1. An area of warm air meets an area of cold air. Stage 2. The warm air is forced over the cold air.

Glossary Term. Rain shadow effect. The region on the lee (sheltered) side of a mountain or mountain range where the precipitation is noticeably less than on the windward side, because the moisture-bearing air mass loses most of its moisture on the windward side before reaching the lee side.

Cardiff

Hottest place in the United Kingdom – Isles of Scilly. The Isles of Scilly rise in the Atlantic about 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the tip of the Cornish peninsula. The ocean around Cornwall and Scilly has the warmest temperature of any water off the UK coast.

Generally East Anglian ones – Essex, Cambridge, Suffolk and Norfolk are counted among the driest with lowest rainfall and fewest wet days per year.

Seathwaite is the wettest inhabited place in the United Kingdom and receives around 3,552 millimetres (140 in) of rain per year.

In 2010, Jaywick was assessed as the most deprived area in England. In September 2015, it was again named as the most deprived, according to the indices of deprivation based on several factors including: poverty, crime, education and skill levels, unemployment and housing, after being assessed in 2012–13.

With an annual rainfall of around 600 mm, Essex, Cambridgeshire, parts of North Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, Suffolk and Norfolk, belong to the driest areas of the UK.

In London, Teddington, nestled in the Royal Borough of Richmond, was deemed to be the best place to live in the capital, while Altrincham retained its place at the top of the North West section after being named overall winner in 2020.

Cleveland tops Britain’s blacklist and replaces West Yorkshire as the most dangerous region in the country, with sky-high rates of violent crime and criminal damage.