system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 It is 22 degrees F outside. Why is it sleeting and not snowing?
gpt
The temperature of the air isn't the temperature of the precipitation. The rain you see is falling down from higher altitudes where it apparently isn't the same temperature as near the ground.

Rain often occurs as air cools, reducing the amount of water vapor it can hold. So we can expect there is a warmer mass of air overhead that is cooling, dropping out liquid water that only has time to partially freeze into sleet on the way down.