snow grains

American  

noun

1. precipitation consisting of white, opaque ice particles usually less than one millimeter in diameter.

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Etymology

Origin of snow grains

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

Earlier this year, Hao and colleagues noted that the varied shapes of real snow grains make snow melt more slowly than in models where grains are assumed to be uniformly spherical.

From Science Daily

These include warming temperatures, pollution, dust and even the shape of snow grains as they pack together on the ground.

From Science Daily

"There's clean snow and there's dirty snow, and how they respond to sunlight is very different. And then there are the shapes of the snow grains, which are anything but uniform. These all affect the snowpack."

From Science Daily

Spherical snow grains would absorb more sunlight and melt more snow; the odd shapes of real flakes reflect more sunlight and melt less snow.

From Science Daily

Radar, in theory, can penetrate the surface of a blanket of snow and return an accurate picture of its density by detailing the shape and size of snow grains and how densely packed they are.

From Los Angeles Times