I liked this Canadian summary of precipitation-type algorithms.
http://cimms.ou.edu/~cortinas/preprints/canada6.html

BTW I have the feeling that the Americans write about "precipitation
type" when they mean "snow or rain" while the British use more often
"water phase" or "precipitation phase". Is this just due to small
samples or is there a difference in this between Queen's English and
Bush English ?

Elena


wrote:
The problem with 1000-500mb thickness is that it is not very reliable
as a snow predictor. I think most professionals would even not rely on
1000-850mb because of the times when warm air between 3000 and 5000ft
is undercut by very cold air.
The wet bulb freezing level is probably the most accurate predictor.