Wiktionary
n. rain which freezes upon contact.
Wikipedia
Freezing rain is the name given to rain that falls when surface temperatures are below freezing. Unlike a mixture of rain and snow, ice pellets (both of which are sometimes called "sleet"), 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. The resulting ice, called glaze, can accumulate to a thickness of several centimeters. The METAR code for freezing rain is FZRA.
A storm that produces a significant thickness of glaze ice from freezing rain is often referred to as an ice storm. Although not violent storms, freezing rain is notorious for causing travel problems on roadways, breaking tree limbs, and downing power lines from the weight of accumulating ice. It is also known for being extremely dangerous to aircraft since the ice can effectively 'remould' the shape of the airfoil and flight control surfaces. (See atmospheric icing.)
Usage examples of "freezing rain".
There might be snow or hail or freezing rain with a wind-chill factor way below zero.
The thin limbs of deciduous trees and brush d in white from a coating of freezing rain, which accentuated md branch, captivating Ayla with their winter beauty.
He takes his sample case, and he walks down the many stairs to the street, where the freezing rain is turning to sleet.
He held her tightly as, around them, the snow began to thicken and turn to freezing rain.
First, out-of-season freezing rain, and now dreams about strange towers that left me rods from where I went to sleep.
I kept on going out through the house wall and saw the oddly unshadowed streets slick with freezing rain and cars going up and down Main Street with tires and wiper blades crunching.
Dunworthy huddled against the gate, trying to keep out of the freezing rain and shivering.
God knows how many warriors the Tersae will throw at us, once this freezing rain stops.
One day he had marched thirty miles over the Brecons, some of the crudest terrain in Britain, in freezing rain with one hundred pounds of gear in his Bergen rucksack.
Surrounded by steaming mist, glazed by the freezing rain, the fish sparkled like silvery armour in the lamps.
He set the phone back, weighed the death shell in his palm, went to the back door, walked out into the muddy lot in the freezing rain, and threw the shell as far out into the stubbled cornfield as he could.
Iza worried about her, and when a day of bright sunshine followed one of freezing rain, she decided it was time to give Ayla a little respite before the winter closed in on them completely.