graupel
Americannoun
noun
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A small, white ice particle that falls as precipitation and breaks apart easily when it lands on a surface.
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Also called snow pellet soft hail
Etymology
Origin of graupel
1885–90; < German; diminutive of Graupe hulled grain
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As showers shift south, high pressure is expected to build in the atmosphere above, creating conditions for potential lightning and graupel with the development of stronger showers in the afternoon, the weather service said.
From Seattle Times
Graupel, also known as snow pellets or soft hail, forms when water droplets freeze onto a snow crystal, according to the National Weather Service.
From Seattle Times
“And multiple showers will just follow to rain. We’ll only be concerned about maybe a few snowflakes and graupel, smaller than hail, during the nighttime overnight hours.”
From Seattle Times
Inside turbulent storm clouds, the collision of tiny ice crystals and graupel—a kind of soft, frozen precipitation—creates an electric field, known as the charging zone, where lightning is born.
From Scientific American
The negatively charged graupel are heavier, so they fall toward the bottom of the cloud.
From Scientific American
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
