Central Virginia Blue Ridge
By Tommy Stafford
A very strong cold front dropped through the area Tuesday afternoon and as it did, the winds kicked up and some strange frozen stuff fell from the sky. Some folks described it as styrofoam looking snow, others were just excited to be learning a new word!
So just what is graupel? More or less it’s supercooled water droplets. ”
Contact between a snow crystal and the supercooled droplets results in freezing of the liquid droplets onto the surface of the crystal. This process of crystal growth is known as accretion. Crystals that exhibit frozen droplets on their surfaces are often referred to as rimed. When this process continues so that the shape of the original snow crystal is no longer identifiable, the resulting crystal is referred to as graupel.”
You can read more here on wiki.
Above the video of the graupel as it started in Roseland Tuesday afternoon.
Above my Facebook live talking about graupel and the light snow that moved through.
Above, I talk more about what we can expect in the coming days in my weather forecast for Wednesday and beyond. Hint, a warm up after a very blustery midweek!
Bundle up!
