Mar 24
Up in the sky ... It's snow, it's hail, it's ... graupel!
How did I get this far along in life without knowing there is a name for the styrofoam-like beads that pelted me as I split firewood Monday morning?
I have my own name for them - especially when they pelt my face four days into spring - but that one is more scatological than meteorological.
The official name, believe it or not, is "graupel." The dictionary definition: "graupel - a type of soft, white, opaque precipitation formed when supercooled water droplets freeze onto falling snowflakes, creating small, fragile pellets ..." Yep, that's it.
The word comes from the German "graupe," which means hulled grain.