Meaning of graupel | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake.
   uncountable
2. A small ball of rime resulting from this process.
   countable

Equivalents

Examples

“Is it desirable in giving the falls of hail to draw a distinction between "graupel" and true hail?”

“November.— […] Smart shower of graupel (i.e. frozen snow in pellets), with snow at 9 p.m. on 10th.”

“In a paper in this month's Petermann's Mittheilungen Prof. H. Fritz treats of the Geographical Distribution of Hail. […] [B]alls of true hail hav[e] an icy structure, whereas the balls of graupel are only small pellets of snow. […] With increase in latitude and in height the fall of graupel increases and that of hail decreases, while hailstones of large size are most frequent towards the equator.”

“The steam of the horses and their breath came back in turbid clouds, and the snow, or soft hail (now known as graupel), cut white streaks through them into travellers' eyes, and danced on the roof like lozenges.”

“It is established that graupels and hailstones are cone-shaped with rounded apexes and that they become egg-shaped as a result of growth during descent.”

“[W]hen an ice or snow crystal collides with supercooled droplets, the droplets will freeze on the surface of the crystal to form rime. […] [C]ontinued riming will eventually produce a particle that is completely covered by rimes such that the original crystal shape can no longer be recognized. The particle now becomes a graupel (sometimes also called a soft hail or snow pellet). […] By convention, a graupel should be smaller than 5 mm in diameter. If it becomes greater than 5 mm in diameter (2.5 mm in radius) it will be called hail.”

CEFR level