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Drizzle may seem like one of the most harmless forms of precipitation, but when you put the word “freezing” in front of it, it can become quite dangerous. As we head into the winter months, freezing drizzle may impact an area where you live, and it should be taken quite seriously.

Freezing drizzle (like freezing rain) freezes on contact to produce a coating of ice on the ground and other exposed surfaces. This coating on ice will impact roads, bridges, power lines, tree limbs, virtually anything that’s exposed. If enough drizzle falls, this can lead to power outages because the weight of the ice can break tree limbs and power lines.

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Just a quarter-inch of ice can lead to power outages. We have seen some historic ice storms in the past that were caused by freezing drizzle and/or freezing rain. One weather event that takes the cake has been dubbed "The Great Texas Freeze, that occurred in February of 2021. The bulk of the problems happened in Texas where freezing rain and extremely cold temperatures led to power outages across the state and left millions of people in the dark and cold for nearly a week. Frozen streets outside Fort Worth led to a pileup of more than 100 vehicles. The deep freeze lasted eight days in the Lone Star State.

J​ennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.