Topic: Snow, Mixed, and Rain on Doppler displays

[DaleReid]

I thought there was some discussion but didn't find anything when I searched for snow and radar just now.

Anyway, with rain (strange getting over an inch of rain after Christmas) there was an unusual pattern to watch for several days on the Minneapolis/St. Paul Doppler radar.

But with all the moving around of the edges of the blue/pink/green indications of the precipitation, what is the characteristic of snow from rain that allows radar to determine what is falling in the area of it's returns?  Or do they use surface temps to colorize the screens?

Just curious as to how it is different in reflectivity.
Dale