While I'm not sure it is a phenomenon per say, one thing that jumps out to me happened a few years ago. I was flying back into BWI from Detroit, and it occurred during the decent into landing. Near Frederick you could see pretty good snow fall coming down out the window lit up in the plane's lights. However, once we were down lower and, on the ground, it was all coming down as rain due to the temps. It was so wild to me to see the warm layer melting the snow in person over a few minutes, okay more than just a "layer" in this instance.