A: The term "sleet" is American for what Canadians call "mixed rain and snow." Not to be confused with "freezing rain," which falls as liquid and freezes on the way down and creates yucky stuff that coats trees and snaps power lines.
Wikipedia has an entire entry about Canadian severe weather terminoloy. The horse itself is here: you will go to Environment Canada's glossary at the letter "s," where you will notice nothing about "sleet."
Fortunately, we don't have anything like that happening here today. Instead, we have clear skies. Which means hardly anything in terms of warmth. This morning was 15 below F. That's, like, I dunno. Cold.
Could be worse, though. Could have freezing rain or mixed rain and snow.
My point? Just that even conversations about the weather between Canadians and Americans still have plenty of room for miscommunication. Though "brr" seems understandable to both.
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A U.S. writer living in Canada examines borders, boundaries, and other invisible (though not imaginary) lines.
