It's Raining "Graupel"

When I went out to walk the dog this morning, here's what I found on my patio -- Graupel "precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake, forming a 2–5 mm ball of rime ice; the snowflake acts as a nucleus of condensation in this process." Graupel looks like the remains of a crumbled styrofoam cup, it crunches under your shoes, and it sizzles when it comes down, like cold french fries going into a deep fat fryer.


So it's not just tiny hail or sleet, as I in my ignorance have called it? Fascinating! Thank you!

The "100 names for snow" of the Inuit is supposed to be a canard, but reading "Smilla's Sense of Snow" illuminated a few of the names they have for different types of ice. Do you know any more of the names for different types of precipitation, frozen or not?
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The thing is, it doesn't look or feel like hail. Hail is like little chunks of ice. This is really like little bits of styrofoam and they crunch when you step on them.
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This is interesting - according to this Avalanche Encyclopedia glossary, graupel and corn snow are two different frozen precipitation.

Ain't the intertubes grand?
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This type of snow is actually an indicator that there is a thunderstorm in the air :D

had there been any reports of lightning in the area?

cool!
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We got about 8" of this stuff in St. Louis back in the early 90's then it froze over on top. You could almost skate on it, then crack it open to find these little beads beneath it. Very strange.
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