Snow, graupel fall on Los Angeles and Disneyland during California storm

SFGate ^ | March 1, 2023 | Olivia Harden

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“Graupel” has been around forever and is familiar to people living in snow country. This is one word that isn’t a new-age, warmist concoction.

[rlmorel]

I have lived in snow country for the largest portion of my life, and have never heard it used or even seen it.

Of course, then again, I have never in my life seen the weather fear-mongering I see on television when I pass one by, and in my part of the country, they have spent that last four days working people into a frenzy about a winter storm.

We got about four inches, maybe. Then again, from what I saw in my damned blue state, the news cycles were split between the life-changing weather we better be fully prepared for, or the expiration of SNAP benefits.

So I takes what I can gets...

But I take your point at face value, which in your case, is decent currency...:)

[HereInTheHeartland]

“ That is the first time I have ever encountered the word “graupel.” I have a feeling that it will not be the last.”

It’s the new hip word for sleet.

[rlmorel]

Hm. An insidious change.

I am currently listening to Jerome Corsi’s book “The Truth About Energy, Global Warming, and Climate Change”.

An excellent book. What I like about it is he fully and truthfully spends time laying out the climate alarmist positions, one by one, fully as if it were them actually conveying them. If you were dropped into the middle of a chapter unaware, you might think it was an alarmist book.

Then, he lays out, in documented detail, the works of people who tear them down point by point.

Then, after each point and counter-point, he summarizes all of what he just talked about in that chapter.

I really like it.

But inherent in all of this by the Left is the use of language to either induce panic, obfuscate the details, or outright discourage discussion and demonize those who DO try to discuss them.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

I always liked Twain’s line about lightning versus lightning-bug, though it was a reworked quote from Josh Billings (which Twain acknowledged).

[WKUHilltopper]

I though “graupel” was human feces and urine picked from the streets of San Francisco by the atmosphere and redeposited on them in frozen chunks.

[WKUHilltopper]

Thought.

[rlmorel]

Mark Twain fully deserves the reputation he has acquired in our culture!

That is so true about those “five dollar words”. Heh, I remember back in the Navy, I was a lowly enlisted guy with a decent vocabulary and ability to use it. But to some, I no doubt sounded like some egghead trying to impress people.

We had a Chief who had unofficial control of assigning nicknames to people. I think he was from Mississippi, and his name was Waters. (He always had a huge cheek-full of Red Man, and a styrofoam cup to spit into, so his name given by others became “Chief Muddy Waters”!)

He would name one guy “WingNut”, another guy “Stinky”, and someone else “The Preacher”, a guy of Korean descent “Bruce Lee” due to his advanced Tai Kwan Do abilities. He called me “The Professor”...I didn’t like it, but I determined it was good-naturedly given and used, so it apparently wasn’t meant to be disrespectful from him, but it didn’t stick, and everyone just called me “RL”.

Something about that quote reminded me of a famous quote by Herb Brooks that I always loved, when dressing down a player on the Olympic Hockey Team in 1980 said to him: “You’ve got a million dollar set of legs and a ten-cent fart for a brain.”

[ProtectOurFreedom]

We get a fair amount of graupel in North Idaho at 2,300 feet elevation. Here is more than you ever want to know about graupel:

You can tell "graupel" is a German word and it just rolls off the tongue nicely. German "graupel" is the diminutive of Graupe, hulled grain or pearl barley, probably of Slavic origin; akin to Russian krupa, groats. Etymologists say there does seem to be a grain of truth in the assumption that the word grew from the Slavic word krupa, which has the same meaning. Graupel was first seen in an 1889 weather report and has been whirling around in the meteorology field ever since to describe "pellets of snow" or "soft hail" (the latter phrase is an actual synonym of graupel).

From Wiki:. It is also called soft hail, hominy snow, or snow pellets [POF - we called it "corn snow" as kids before we heard "graupel"] and is precipitation that forms when supercooled water droplets in air are collected and freeze on falling snowflakes, forming 2–5 mm (0.08–0.20 in) balls of crisp, opaque rime.

Graupel is distinct from hail and ice pellets in both formation and appearance. However, both hail and graupel are common in thunderstorms with cumulonimbus clouds, though graupel also falls in winter storms, and at higher elevations as well. It has its own METAR code for graupel: GS.

Graupel commonly forms in high-altitude climates and is both denser and more granular than ordinary snow, due to its rimed exterior. Macroscopically, graupel resembles small beads of polystyrene. The combination of density and low viscosity makes fresh layers of graupel unstable on slopes, and layers of 20–30 cm (8–12 in) or higher present a high risk of dangerous slab avalanches. In addition, thinner layers of graupel falling at low temperatures can act as ball bearings below subsequent falls of more naturally stable snow, rendering them also liable to avalanche or otherwise making surfaces slippery. Graupel tends to compact and stabilise ("weld") approximately one or two days after falling, depending on the temperature and the properties of the graupel.

Snowflakes can turn into graupel...

Almost graupel...

Graupel in shape of snowflake...

It's pretty cool when the stuff falls and covers our driveway and patio. It indeed looks like ball bearings (like hail, but softer as it says above).

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It is definitely NOT sleet. It is NOT hail. It’s kind of a soft spherical pellet (like hail, but soft) and it causes huge avalanche danger in the mountains. It is not a hip, new word — it’s been around at least 130 years. See my post above.

[hadaclueonce]

Sleet

[rlmorel]

Hahaha...you ever see the movie "Saving Private Ryan" and one of the soldiers named REIBEN is griping to his Captain about the mission in the way most enlisted guys would gripe about it. Then, one of the other guys pipes in:

JACKSON: Sir, I have an opinion on this matter.

CAPT MILLER: I'd love to hear it.

JACKSON: Seems to me, Cap'n, this mission is a serious misallocation of valuable military resources.

CAPT MILLER: Go on.

JACKSON: Well, sir, by my way a thinkin' I am a finely made instrument of warfare. What I mean by that is, if you was to put me with this here sniper rifle anywhere up to and includin' one mile from Adolf Hitler, with a clear line of sight, war's over.

CAPT MILLER: (nods appreciatively to JACKSON, then addresses REIBEN) Reiben, I want you to listen closely to Jackson. This is the way to gripe. Jackson, continue.

JACKSON: Yes, sir. It seems to me, sir, that the entire resources of the United States Army oughta be dedicated to one thing and one thing only, and that is to put me and this here weapon on a rooftop, smack-dab in the middle of Berlin, Germany. Now I ain't one to question decisions made up on high, sir, but it seems to me that saving one private, no matter how grievous the losses of his family, is a waste of my God-given talent.

Heh, your post was the equivalent of Jackson's riposte!

That is a compliment, by the way...:)

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Herb Brooks was quite the card.

Red Man brings back old memories.

Playing catcher in a softball game many, many, many years ago...I had a wad of Red Man in my cheek when a frozen rope was hit out to left field. The man on second got up a head of steam and rounded third. I knew the game was afoot. He came in shoulder first and placed it right in my bread basket. Down I went and down went the Red Man. I held the ball and got the out but I did not hold my cookies. I got back to the bench and never puked so hard in my life.

Never chewed again after that.

[Thank You Rush]

I have to add my voice to others who agree with your post.

“”That is the first time I have ever encountered the word “graupel.” I have a feeling that it will not be the last.””

[Thank You Rush]

I bet she did also....no other way to explain the use of that word.

“”I’ll bet Olivia looked up a synonym for sleet while writing the article.””

[ProtectOurFreedom]

LOL. I rewatched Saving Private Ryan a few months ago and absolutely love that scene. Now I know why — it’s me! Thanks.

[Thank You Rush]

““Graupel” has been around forever and is familiar to people living in snow country.””

That is news to those of us who grew up and lived in snow country...

[al baby]

I graupel myself when ever i can

[HereInTheHeartland]

Looks like sleet to me.
It seems like an example of people who are snobbish about European things, they want to introduce a sophisticated European word to show their greater knowledge.

[BlackbirdSST]

“Graupel” has been around forever and is familiar to people living in snow country. This is one word that isn’t a new-age, warmist concoction.

I lived some 40 years in snow country (WV, W. Maryland and Montana) and not one time have I heard that word. Maybe my definition of snow country differs from yours. Maybe it's a case of a word that has been around forever yet rarely used.