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 ● Apr. 30, 2024
But in Los Angeles, meteorologists reported a rare sight, when snow, or graupel — the soft, wet precipitation that is not quite as hard as hail — descended on the Hollywood sign.
From New York Times ● Mar. 3, 2023
Was the white stuff found near the Hollywood sign on Thursday snow — or graupel or accumulated hail?
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2023
In Sacramento, the state capital, the weather service said it had received reports of something that might be either hail or graupel — soft, wet snowflakes encased in supercooled water droplets.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 23, 2023
As these icy particles bump into one another, they transfer electrical charges: the larger graupel tend to become negatively charged, whereas the smaller ice crystals end up with a positive charge.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 2, 2022
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.
