Where freezing rain forms when frozen precipitation falls through a melting layer and turns liquid, freezing drizzle forms via the supercooled warm-rain process, in which cloud droplets coalesce until they become heavy enough to fall out of the cloud, but in subfreezing conditions.
[2] Despite this process taking place in a subfreezing environment, the liquid water will not freeze if the environmental temperature is above 18 °F (−8 °C), via supercooling.
[2] When freezing drizzle accumulates on land, it creates an icy layer of glaze.
Freezing drizzle alone does not generally result in significant ice accumulations due to its light, low-intensity nature unlike its rain counterpart.
The loss and accident of American Eagle Flight 4184 on October 31, 1994, has been attributed to ice buildup due to freezing drizzle aloft.