Dictionary

graupel en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈɡɹaʊp(ə)l/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Borrowed from German Graupel(wetter) (literally “graupel (weather)”). Graupel is a back-formation from graupeln (“to hail (with soft hailstones)”) + -el (diminutive suffix); and graupeln is from Graupe (“hulled grain, pearl barley”) (ultimately from Proto-Slavic *krūpà (“grainy substance; groats; hail”) and Proto-Indo-European *krewp-) + -eln (suffix forming verbs, often with a diminutive or frequentative sense).

Meanings

1. (uncountable) A precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake.
   • Is it desirable in giving the falls of hail to draw a distinction between "graupel" and true hail? 1873 April, “The Leipzig Conference”, in Symons’s Monthly Meteorological Magazine, volume VIII, number LXXXVII, London: Edward Stanford, […], →OCLC, page 42:
   • November.— […] Smart shower of graupel (i.e. frozen snow in pellets), with snow at 9 p.m. on 10th. 1877 January 24 (date written), Frederick E[rnest] Sawyer, “November”, in Meteorology of Brighton, 1876, [Brighton, East Sussex?]: [s.n.], published [1877], →OCLC, page 2:
   • The steam of the horses and their breath came back in turbid clouds, and the snow, or soft hail (now known as graupel), cut white streaks through them into travellers' eyes, and danced on the roof like lozenges. 1894, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, “A Wager”, in Perlycross: A Tale of the Western Hills, London: Sampson Low, Marston, & Company […], →OCLC, page 238:
   • In a paper in this month's Petermann's Mittheilungen Prof. H. Fritz treats of the Geographical Distribution of Hail. […] [B]alls of true hail hav[e] an icy structure, whereas the balls of graupel are only small pellets of snow. […] With increase in latitude and in height the fall of graupel increases and that of hail decreases, while hailstones of large size are most frequent towards the equator. 1876 November 2, “Notes”, in Nature: A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science, volume XV, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 17:
2. (countable) A small ball of rime resulting from this process.
   • [W]hen an ice or snow crystal collides with supercooled droplets, the droplets will freeze on the surface of the crystal to form rime. […] [C]ontinued riming will eventually produce a particle that is completely covered by rimes such that the original crystal shape can no longer be recognized. The particle now becomes a graupel (sometimes also called a soft hail or snow pellet). […] By convention, a graupel should be smaller than 5 mm in diameter. If it becomes greater than 5 mm in diameter (2.5 mm in radius) it will be called hail. 2013, Pao K[uan] Wang, “The Shape and Size of Cloud and Precipitation Particles”, in Physics and Dynamics of Clouds and Precipitation, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 30:
   • It is established that graupels and hailstones are cone-shaped with rounded apexes and that they become egg-shaped as a result of growth during descent. 1951 September 15, Donald G. Yerg, “Tikhomirov, E., On the Shape of Graupels and Hailstones (O Forme Krupy i Grada). Meteorologiia i Gidrologiia, 2, No. 9: 66–67, 1936”, in Annotated Bibliography on Snow, Ice, and Permafrost […] (SIPRE Report; 12), [Hanover, N.H.]: Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Research Establishment, Corps of Engineers, United States Army, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 340, column 2:

Forms

Relateds

ice pellets · snow · freezing rain · sleet

Synonyms

popcorn snow · hominy snow · granular snow · snow pellet · soft hail

Translations (45)

et lumekruubid (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · cs kroupa (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · gl gránulos de neve (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · cv кӗрпе (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · sh кру́па (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · bg сугра́шица (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · cmn 霰 (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · gu કાચા કરા (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · lt sniego kruopos (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · sl sodra (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · uk крупа́ (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · fi lumirae (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · ru крупа́ (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · it neve tonda (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · mk лапавица (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · nl korrelhagel (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · pt graupel (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · gl neve granulada (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · sv snöhagel (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · sk krúpa (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · ko 우박 (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · nl zachte hagel (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · nn sprøhagl (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · fr neige roulée (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · nl winterhagel (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · ja 霰 (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · lmo nev tonda (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · nb graupel (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · be крупа́ (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · de Graupel (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · sh krúpa (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · ko 싸라기눈 (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · id graupel (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · ar برد دقيق (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · tt рашкы (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · he גְּרָאוּפֶּל (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · th ลูกปรายหิมะ (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · sv trindsnö (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · ms graupel (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · fa برفدانه (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · nl graupel (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · hu hódara (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · hu graupel (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · pl krupa (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process) · hi कच्चा ओला (precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake; small ball of rime resulting from this process)