A method for detecting atmospheric icing potential comprises emitting, by a lidar (light detection and ranging) entity (108a, 108b) such as a Doppler lidar entity, electromagnetic radiation to the atmosphere and receiving radiation backscattered from the aerosol, such as a cloud, present in the atmosphere (304), determining an indication of signal intensity, such as the CNR (carrier-to-noise ratio), on the basis of the received backscattered signal relative to one or more distances such as heights from a predetermined basic level such as the location of the lidar (306), comparing the indication of signal intensity with at least one predetermined reference in order to obtain an indication of the likelihood of cloud (110) presence at said one or more distances (308), and determining an indication of the icing potential at said number of distances on the basis of the comparison and an indication of the temperature at said one or more distances (310). An arrangement for executing the method is presented.