Most of us generally think of precipitation in terms of three varieties: rain, snow, and sleet. In fact, a team of researchers including NASA engineers spent almost a decade analyzing weather data to fine-tune these categories. After utilizing machine learning to digest the ensuing mountains of data, the group has put forth a total of nine different types of precipitation. This is one of the many reasons why even today’s most reliable weather models can have difficulty predicting precipitation. UMAP also allows for a better understanding of how these types of precipitation transition between one another.