Flying in rain: would you climb up to the 0C level, and how do you know the rain will then stop?

Peter wrote:

I would think it should be, because while rain does seem to stop before you climb to the 0C level in reality what happens if it doesn’t? Then you are in freezing rain and rapid icing.

But then prob90 you are flying through that warm front @Ibra referred to which will come together with a forecast thick icing layer I will not dare climb through if aware of.

The other realistic situation is when that 0C is close to the ground and it is raining, maybe with or without your front, but again why would you take off at 0-3C in the rain into a thick cloud? A different matter would be a typical winter low-level stratus which is typically 1000 ft-thick, but I must admit I am no expert in flying in that kind of wx.

So my main worry is when or how would I find that situation with no clear forecast (in the former case) or real-time awareness before take-off (in the latter case)?

Peter wrote:

You could encounter most things on a long flight

Sure, but then prob90 , as you say the concern will be on departure and a bit less on arrival, since during the enroute portion you will aim to either be on top or in sub-15C so not very concerned except convective wx.
At those temps I have only encountered icing in convective wx, but then those temps are no longer the relevant item as you can go from -20C to -5C at the same level (and fully iced up) in one minute…ask me how I know….I only told ATC after I had turned around and out of that cloud when 5mm had accreted in literally 10 secs…

Anyway this is off topic, since what this is about is what you find through the climb on the way there, which is the really concerning bit for long flights if you have FL capability. My flight planning for a long flight is mainly about that: will I be able to climb safely to good conditions into the FL’s? To me this is at least as important as the approach forecast.

Yes cold GA flying is mostly done in VMC: cold IMC has to be short term buisness with nice VMC above, ahead or under

I don’t think departure in light drizzle with low shallow stratus is problematic? especially with no icing forecasted, the elephant in the room is having to come back for X reason in bad visibility with misted canopy

Departing under tick nimbostratus with heavy rain does not sound sensible airrespective of OAT:

• With 20C OAT, you need a mignon who does your walk around, fuel aircraft, pull it out of the hangar or load it with people and bags…no one does it in low wing aircraft anyway

• With 3C OAT, it’s dodgy: the forecast will clearly show icing, you also see it on the airframe of some B737 that just landed (even driving is risky: I tried that once, the car went upside down)

Take this for example.

This is what we have today at my home base LEPA 101030Z 07011KT 9000 -RA FEW025CB SCT060 16/15 Q1023 TEMPO 3000

If I plan a flight north say to Toulouse, like this with Autorouter, departing momentarily

the GRAMET cross section shows this

Supposedly rain turns into snow in the climb before getting to 0C

Would you see such a climb as an issue in a non-deiced turbocharged aircraft? And if NA?

Antonio wrote:

Supposedly rain turns into snow in the climb before getting to 0C

Would you see such a climb as an issue in a non-deiced turbocharged aircraft? And if NA?

In this case it appears the precipitation comes from CBs, so I wouldn’t climb into that at all (without wx radar). But with FEW it should be possible to climb in VMC at least to 6000 feet.

Yes it is an easy example since you can probably see your way through up to 6000 ft.

A slightly different example, similar route but different DEP at Ibiza 24h later. This is perhaps more representative of the problem in hand?