Why does the Midwest get more ice storms than snow late fall or early winter?
In order to get snow, you must have at or below freezing temperatures from the base of the precipitating cloud to at least near the ground surface. Since the early season cold fronts are usually not as strong as mid season storms, the cold air is usually just a shallow layer. Since cold air is more dense than warm air, the cold shallow layer will sit below the warm layer. When you have a warm layer of air over a shallow freezing cold layer of air and it starts to precipitate above, the precipitation will be in the form of rain in the warmer air above the freezing layer of air. When the rain drops enters the shallow freezing air below, it will cool rapidly. When the now cold raindrops hit a frozen ground surface, it will change to ice. And that will be defined as an ice storm. In mid winter, the cord fronts are likely much stronger with a deep layer of cold freezing air. Therefore, the precipitation will start out as snow and will stay in the form of snow since there will be no above fr
