Drizzle

Also called drizzle icon, fine rain

Forecast icon on a weather app or a public forecast table.

Drizzle meaning

Drizzle, as a forecast icon, means very small drops rather than rain. WWIS and the Met Office list it apart from light rain, and mist is a different row.

At a glance

System: Forecast icon, with a station-plot note
Used for: Expected drizzle, not light rain
Not the same as: Light rain, mist, or freezing rain

A forecast icon for very small, close-set drops. Not light rain, and not mist.

The name. Drizzle is not light rain. WWIS gives each a label, and the Met Office gives each an icon.

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Where it comes from

WWIS lists drizzle and, separately, light rain. The Met Office guide has a drizzle icon between its mist and fog pair and its rain icons. MetService describes drizzle as droplets less than 0.5 millimetres across, close together, and rain as drops greater than that. The threshold is MetService’s account of its icons. Apple groups drizzle with freezing drizzle. That pairing is Apple’s, and freezing rain is still its own page here.

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Weather

What it means

Drizzle wets a surface without the spaced drops of rain. It can last. It is not a shower. It is also not mist: mist is droplets in the air that hinder seeing, and WWIS lists mist on its own. A station plot that records drizzle is using an observing code, not this forecast picture.

Variants

Freezing drizzle

Apple puts drizzle and freezing drizzle on one icon line. Freezing drizzle is liquid drizzle that freezes on contact. This cabinet does not give it Apple’s pairing. Freezing rain is the nearer page for ice on surfaces.

Worth knowing

MetService describes drizzle as droplets under 0.5 mm, and rain as drops over 0.5 mm. That cut is MetService’s. Source

Questions

Is drizzle just light rain?

Not in these tables. WWIS lists drizzle and light rain separately. The Met Office gives drizzle its own icon. MetService adds a drop-size cut for its own set.

How is drizzle different from mist?

Drizzle reaches the ground as liquid. Mist is suspended droplets that reduce visibility. WWIS lists both.

Often confusedRainRaindrops are the larger fall. MetService’s cut is half a millimetre. WWIS did not need that sentence to give drizzle its own label.

Often confusedMistMist is seeing, not falling drops. Both can occur together. The icons are still different.

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Sources

Named when the entry depends on a text, a date, or a standard. Catalog numbers are not invented.

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symbol.wiki, edited as Sigilla. Last reviewed 18 October 2026. A reading of public tradition, not a ruling.