If you hear a local broadcast meteorologist say that a storm bringing a dreaded wintry mix is on the way, you should forget about flying until clear skies replace the storm.
During winter, such storms occur every few years as far south as a line from northern Georgia across Texas, but not in the dry Southwest. Such storms can rarely hit farther south, such as on January 3, 2018, when a wintry mix stopped or delayed flights as far south as Jacksonville, Florida. This “dreaded wintry mix” also caused scores of general aviation pilots in the region to put off plans to leave that day, and instructors and students to ditch plans for in-air instruction.
Mix refers to the fact that winter storms often bring not only snow, but also sleet, freezing rain, and ordinary rain. A storm might begin with rain and then switch to freezing rain, then sleet, and finally snow. A storm might skip one or more of these kinds of precipitation, or reverse the order when the different kinds of precipitation arrive.
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