In the US “sleet” is the term for a winter precipitation that occurs when snow falls through a layer of warm air and melts into water droplets, then re-freezes into ice pellets as it passes through colder air closer to the ground. In many other areas that were part of the British empire that precipitation is called “ice pellets” and “sleet” instead refers to a mix of snow and rain. In the US that’s called a “wintry mix.”
As someone from the U.S. I have never heard of “wintry mix”. I currently live on the west coast, but I always grew up that wet mix of snow/rain/water on the ground as “slush”. Each country has its own regional dialects
Sleet has always been the slushy stuff near me. Hail is the hard frozen ice pellets that can crack a windshield. I don’t know what OP is talking about.
That’s the NOAA/NWS term I think (this is apple weather)
intresting. was looking and asking around, it seem, (agian as a person who lives in a west coast area where we get about 0 snow). “Wintry mox” seems like it might be used to mean a combo of rain/sleet/snow, so while the “ice pellets” are still called “sleet” you might say its “wintry mix” bcs there might be sleet/snow/rain on the ground or around.
Snow - snow Rain - rain Sleet - sleet Winters mix - any combination above