Task 2: Analyze this model forecast sounding
to forecast what type of precipitation will be occurring 12 hours later (00 UTC Day 2).
(To assist with this question and others that follow, you can
open the interactive skew-T with this sounding).

The correct answer is c) Ice pellets (sleet). The warm, above freezing layer is about 60 hPa (780-840 hPa) or about 2000 feet deep, and has temperatures that peak at 2°C around 800 hPa. This is sufficient to melt at least part, if not all of the snowflakes. However, the particle then falls through a 160 hPa (840-1000 hPa) deep, subfreezing layer near the surface. This corresponds to a layer depth of approximately 5000 feet, which is sufficiently deep to allow for the precipitation particles to completely refreeze into ice pellets.
Note also that the 1000-500 hPa thickness is 5391 m, just below the critical value of 5400 m, which would seem to indicate that snow should be observed at the surface. This shows that thickness must be used with care and that the detailed vertical sounding profile should always be examined to come up with complete and accurate diagnosis and/or prediction of precipitation type.