Snohomish County saw more than just wind and rain on Monday.
Plenty of people also saw graupel.
What’s graupel, you say?
Basically, it’s a form of precipitation that has elements of snow, rain and hail and looks a little like the Styrofoam balls you’d find in beanbag chair.
It forms when snowflakes pass through a layer of super-cold water — so cold, the water’s temperature is literally below freezing.
“It’s amazing,” University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor Cliff Mass said.
The water condenses on the snowflakes, forming them into tiny little balls of ice.
Graupel is usually less than a quarter inch in diameter, National Weather Service meteorologist Johnny Burg said.
While the National Weather Service defines graupel as a form of small hail, it generally isn’t as great a threat to people.
“I never got hurt in a graupel storm, but I got hit once with one-inch sized hail back in Iowa,” Burg said. “That hurt.”
Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455; arathbun@heraldnet.com
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