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Sleetlike hail in Norman, OK

Tim Vasquez

Tim Vasquez

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We just got a fairly good shower of BB-sized hail here east of Norman, OK with an outside air temperature of 46F (around 3:15 pm CST). The temperature is now down to 40F.

At first I thought it was classic sleet, but I'm not seeing any warm precipitation process overlying a cold layer, so evidently there's some hailstone growth mechanisms going on in these clouds (cumulus/stratocumulus based at about 7000 ft).

Tim

winterhail.png
 
Is it graupel? We've got these showers around here in DDC, too. It reminds me of the time I was in Yellowstone a couple years ago when a heavy shower came across where I was hiking...all sorts of BB-sized pellets everywhere (graupel) and it was about 42 degrees or so. Basically embryos of hailstones for the most part, but do not grow to hailstone-size given the lack of updraft strength.
 
I think you're right. They were too small to catch or slice in two, but they looked like small pellets of rime ice. The last time I've seen anything like this was in Germany decades ago.

Tim
 
It also snowed in Vinita, OK in the far northeast corner of the state this morning. None of the snow stuck to anything but pretty cool I guess. It lasted for about an hour or a bit longer. Temperature was mid to upper 30's at the time.
 
Saw clearly pronounced mists of snow aloft mixed in with and hanging just below fluffy cumulus clouds here in the Dallas area during the mid and late afternoon, with temps in the 50's and DWPTS in the low 20's.
 
That was cool this afternoon...got a brief shower of a rain/grauple/snow mix on the SW side of OKC about 3:15pm. I grabbed a couple of pics with my cell phone camera of a couple of high based, low topped clouds...don't think you could really call them cells, but they were cute (if I knew how to download them, I'd share :o)
 
:o Oh my---Do I feel like a dork, I actually never heard the word graupel, so I looked it up-SNOW Pellets--hey I know what that is!
Now that I have totally embarased myself................:eek:
 
I've been seeing quite a few unknown precip (UP) reports out of eastern New Mexico this week. I don't know if it's sleet or a rain/snow mix that is causing that. Speaking of eastern New Mexico, we got quite a few calls at work today of travelers on US-87 between Raton and Clayton giving us reports of white out conditions and lots of cars in the ditches and one that had flipped over. I've really never experienced a blizzard, but it still amazes me how you can get blizzard conditions with 2-4 inches of snow, but 40 mph winds.
 
I got some of it at my place yesterday while putting up x-mas lights. I live 10nm nw of KTLX.
It was pretty interesting.
 

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I see that 'unknown precip' report often, it seems to always happen at the onset of freezing rain.
 
We had several showers of this stuff come through yesterday in Lyons, KS. It was enough to accumulate in patches on elevated areas (my deck, my truck windshield, etc.). At one point I was driving, and about a half mile ahead, on US56 just west of Lyons, a snow shower was so thick I could not see into it. These showers only lasted 5 to 15 minutes at a time, due to the speed of the prevailing winds.
 
I consider myself a huge "fan" of graupel.

Growing up in the mountains of Western Montana, we would get graupel showers 10-15 times a year! Most often it was cold convection or forcing over the mountains in the fall or spring. It would annoy the crap out of me when someone (knowing that I loved weather) would tell me they saw hail the day before.

Last winter in Denver, we had a thundersnow event with dime-sized graupel. (not hail) It was huge!! Ground temperature was 27ºF, though and temperature decreased with height (at least through the cloud layer)

As I've always understood, the biggest difference between graupel and hail is that with graupel formation, the LCL is higher than the freezing level. Graupel formation happens mostly through riming (especially in a cloud with a good vertical component and thus semi-vigorous updraft). In all occasions I have seen graupel, it has been from a thundersnow event or a convective snow shower. Hail is different in that while graupel may be an embryo for hail (forming about the freezing level in a thunderstorm tower), you also have the added effect of the liquid water being carried back above freezing level by the updraft and causing growth when that liquid freezes.

That is how I understand it, but I'm not an expect ... so if you know otherwise ... any masters/PHDs out there with winter weather emphasis?
 
That stuff in Zac's photos above looks like hail/graupel to me. Usually sleet is fairly clear, while hail/graupel has more of a milky/white look to it.
 
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