Title: Precipitation types
Content:   In meteorology, the different types of precipitation often include the character or phase of the precipitation which is falling to ground level. There are three distinct ways that precipitation can occur. Convective precipitation is generally more intense, and of shorter duration, than stratiform precipitation. Orographic precipitation occurs when moist air is forced upwards over rising terrain, such as a mountain. Precipitation can fall in either liquid or solid phases, or transition between them at the freezing level. Liquid forms of precipitation include rain and drizzle and dew. Rain or drizzle which freezes on contact within a subfreezing air mass gains the preceding adjective "freezing", becoming known as freezing rain or freezing drizzle. Frozen forms of precipitation include snow, ice crystals, ice pellets (sleet), hail, and graupel. Their respective intensities are classified either by rate of fall, or by visibility restriction.
Title: Precipitation types
Content: Liquid precipitation: ; Drizzle (DZ) ; Rain (RA) ; Cloudburst (CB) Freezing precipitation: ; Freezing drizzle (FZDZ) ; Freezing rain (FZRA) ; Rain and snow mixed / Slush (RASN) ; Drizzle and snow mixed / Slush (DZSN) Frozen precipitation: ; Snow (SN) ; Snow grains (SG) ; Ice crystals (IC) ; Ice pellets / Sleet (PL) ; Snow pellets / Graupel (GS) ; Hail (GR) ; Megacryometeor (MC) Precipitation falls in many forms, or phases. They can be subdivided into:    The parenthesized letters are the METAR codes for each phenomenon.
Title: Precipitation
Content:   In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzling, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor (reaching 100% relative humidity), so that the water condenses and "precipitates" or falls. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but colloids, because the water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated: cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain 
Title: Precipitation
Content:  Precipitation is a major component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 km3 (121,000 mi3) of water falls as precipitation each year, 398,000 km3 (95,000 cu mi) of it over the oceans. Given the Earth's surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 mm. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective, stratiform, and orographic rainfall. Convective processes involve strong vertical motions that can cause the overturning of the atmosphere in that location within an hour and cause heavy precipitation, while stratiform processes involve weaker upward motions and less intense precipitation. Precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice. Mixtures of different types of precipitation, including types in different categories, can fall simultaneously. Liquid forms of precipitation include rain and drizzle. Rain or drizzle that freezes on contact within a subfreezing air mass is called "freezing rain" or "freezing drizzle". Frozen forms of precipitation include snow, ice needles, ice pellets, hail, and graupel.
Title: Precipitation
Content:  The Köppen classification depends on average monthly values of temperature and precipitation. The most commonly used form of the Köppen classification has five primary types labeled A through E. Specifically, the primary types are A, tropical; B, dry; C, mild mid-latitude; D, cold mid-latitude; and E, polar. The five primary classifications can be further divided into secondary classifications such as rain forest, monsoon, tropical savanna, humid subtropical, humid continental, oceanic climate, Mediterranean climate, steppe, subarctic climate, tundra, polar ice cap, and desert. Rain forests are characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750 and 2000 mm. 
Title: Classifications of snow
Content:  Precipitation may be characterized by type and intensity.
Title: Precipitation types
Content:   Convection occurs when the Earth's surface, especially within a conditionally unstable or moist atmosphere, becomes heated more than its surroundings and in turn leading to significant evaporation. Convective rain and light precipitation are the result of convective clouds, for example cumulonimbus or cumulus congestus. In the initial stages of this precipitation, it generally falls as showers with rapidly changing intensity. Convective precipitation falls over a certain area for a relatively short time, as convective clouds have limited vertical and horizontal extent. Most precipitation in the tropics appears to be convective; however, it has been suggested that stratiform and convective precipitation often both occur within the same complex of convection-generated cumulonimbus. Graupel and hail indicate convection when either are present at the surface, it is indicative that some form of precipitation is extant at the freezing level, a varying point in the atmosphere in which the temperature is 0°C. In mid-latitude regions, convective precipitation is often associated with cold fronts where as it is often found behind the front, occasionally initiating a squall line.
Title: Precipitation
Content:  A concept used in precipitation measurement is the hydrometeor. Any particulates of liquid or solid water in the atmosphere are known as hydrometeors. Formations due to condensation, such as clouds, haze, fog, and mist, are composed of hydrometeors. All precipitation types are made up of hydrometeors by definition, including virga, which is precipitation which evaporates before reaching the ground. Particles blown from the Earth's surface by wind, such as blowing snow and blowing sea spray, are also hydrometeors, as are hail and snow.
Title: Precipitation types
Content:  Precipitation occurs when local air becomes saturated with water vapor, and can no longer maintain the level of water vapor in gaseous form. This occurs when less dense moist air cools, usually when an air mass rises through the atmosphere. However, an air mass can also cool without a change in altitude (e.g. through radiative cooling, or ground contact with cold terrain). Convective precipitation occurs when air rises vertically through the (temporarily) self-sustaining mechanism of convection. Stratiform precipitation occurs when large air masses rise diagonally as larger-scale atmospheric dynamics force them to move over each other. Orographic precipitation is similar, except the upwards motion is forced when a moving air mass encounters the rising slope of a landform such as a mountain ridge.
Title: Climate of Minnesota
Content:  Winter precipitation comes in a few different forms. Snow is the main form of precipitation, but freezing rain, ice, sleet and sometimes even rain are all possible during the winter months. Larger storm systems, often Panhandle hooks or other storms that occur with a meridional flow, can bring large amounts of snow and even blizzard conditions.

Question: what are the four main types of precipitation?
Answer: sleet.
hail.
graupel.
snow.
drizzle.
rain.