1/8/09 Sleet, Snow, Graupel? All at 40+ degrees?

Got a message over the phone from yesterday asking, were we having sleet or snow, as it looked like a combination of both on Signal Mountain? 

I immediately thought of snow pellets. Better known as GRAUPEL. Many saw the burst of snow, sleet and graupel even when the temperatures were in the mid 40s! A quick explanation as to why is that temps around 5000’ were below freezing not giving the snow ample amount of time to melt before it reached the ground. Also dry air was in place leading to evaporational cooling to take place.

Huntsville, AL had the frozen fun and for great technical information, check this out.

According to the American Meteorological Society, graupel can be described as: Heavily rimed snow particles, often called snow pellets; often indistinguishable from very small soft hail except for the size convention that hail must have a diameter greater than 5 mm. Sometimes distinguished by shape into conical, hexagonal, and lump (irregular) graupel.  Our friends over at alabamawx.com was able to grab a few photos from the quick burst of the frozen mystery.  

Maybe we will get “real” snow some time soon. Certainly will be cold enough by the middle of next week, but we will be moisture starved...

 See you soon,  Brian