It's not snow. It's not hail. And it's not sleet.
It's graupel: small pellets of ice created when super-cooled water droplets coat a snowflake. The pellets are cloudy white, not clear like sleet, and often mistaken for hail. It's also known as soft hail, hominy snow, or snow pellets, and has about the same texture as Dippin' Dots ice cream.
A couple days ago I was out on a walk and all at once white dots were all over the street. It crunched as I walked. On Sunday graupel lined the paver bricks.
It is just really cool stuff.
Cool in more ways than one...
ReplyDeleteEverything about it is cool!
DeleteGraupel? Sure it's not little bits of polystyrene? I think Americans call it styrofoam.
ReplyDeleteMother Nature's polystyrene.
DeleteI don't think I had heard that term before but I've seen it many, many years ago.
ReplyDeleteYou won't see it in Arizona - well, maybe in northern AZ.
DeleteMany scholars agree that languages in snow bound regions of the world have as many as 180 words to describe frozen precipitation. And we use on just a few.
ReplyDeleteThe Scots have the most words for snow - 421!
Deletehttps://alltracksacademy.com/languages-with-most-words-for-snow/#:~:text=1)%20Words%20for%20snow%20in%20Scots%3A%20421&text=The%20Scots%20apparently%20have%20well,of%20wind%2Ddriven%20snow).