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Snow pellets

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 1:19 pm
by David Naylor
Could someone refresh my memory .... Does a day of snow pellets (graupel) falling constitute a day of snow or just hail?


Regards, David

Re: Snow pellets

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2017 1:46 pm
by Martin Rowley
... well, I'll pitch in to be shot down(!): I always regard such as a day of /hail/ - *unless* the shower is genuinely accompanied (as in the published definition) by flakes of snow - in which case I record both a day with hail and snow.

All the coding for things like NCMs, Beauforts, SYNOPs (old and new form) etc., all put snow pellets (aka soft hail/graupel) in the 'hail' classification - and that's what I cling to - rightly or wrongly.

I wish they hadn't changed the name many decades ago: 'Graupel' or 'Soft hail' always seemed sensible to me.

Martin.

Re: Snow pellets

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2017 2:36 pm
by David Naylor
Thanks for that, Martin. That was my understanding. There are also similar considerations for the classification of snow grains, but as it's the wrong time of year, I won't go into that one!