Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Precipitation consisting of snow pellets.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A form of soft hail or half-melted snow or sleet.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable A
precipitation that forms whensupercooled droplets of watercondense on asnowflake . - noun countable The result of this process, a small ball of
rime .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But even below that, there was the type of frozen precipitation known as graupel, which "certainly looked like real snow," said Stuart Seto, a specialist at the weather service.
latimes.com - News 2011
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Actually, the only thing I could come up with was "graupel," which is sort of like hail.
What's In A Name: The Key to Victory BikeSnobNYC 2009
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It's not snow that's falling, it's "graupel," according to the National Weather Service.
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"graupel", a German term, in which the au is pronounced like ou in "out".
Modern Mechanix 2008
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"graupel", a German term, in which the au is pronounced like ou in "out".
Modern Mechanix 2008
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Maybe graupel will freeze the garden pressed upon by many things: six people in the tub, the toy-maker's poison gluing hands to the wall, owls shooting us with Bald Martian Eyes and not flying away.
The Awkwardtist Matt Dennison 2012
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Also, according to Wikipedia, graupel "will typically fall apart when touched," and while that might make "Graupel George" a fitting nickname in the context of his previous Roubaix attempts, Hincapie really needs a nickname that's going to allude to his strengths rather than underscore his weaknesses.
What's In A Name: The Key to Victory BikeSnobNYC 2009
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Snow pellets or graupel are spherical white bits of ice that have a diameter less than 5 millimeters.
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Today, 3, foggy, and a brief spell of (WTF!!) graupel, of all things.
ccfinlay: I'm Dreaming Of A Wet Christmas ccfinlay 2006
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And where does the small scale information for the heating humidity, graupel, etc. come from?
Exponential Growth in Physical Systems #2 « Climate Audit 2007
trivet commented on the word graupel
From wiki:
Graupel (also called snow pellets) refers to precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake, forming a 2–5 mm ball of rime ice; the snowflake acts as a nucleus of condensation in this process. The term is derived from German Graupel meaning the same. Graupel does not include other frozen precipitation such as snow or diamond dust. The METAR code for graupel is GS.
April 1, 2008
reesetee commented on the word graupel
Neat!
April 1, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word graupel
Usage on dendrite.
November 11, 2008
ruzuzu commented on the word graupel
I walked through some graupel this morning. Is "graupel" the plural form, too?
February 2, 2010
qms commented on the word graupel
As Winter's a challenge in this northern clime,
We seek in the weather a musical chime.
Now snow may do harm
But like sleet it has charm,
While graupel is awful; it's cold and won't rhyme.
February 5, 2014