Southern Utah Sees First Snow Of The Season- Or Is It Graupel?
The Utah Highway Patrol took to Facebook on August 16th, 2023 to share two pictures of, what appears to be, snow covering an undisclosed highway. The photos were taken on August 12th, 2023.
A few savvy commenters were able to identify that the pictures were captured along Highway 14 in Cedar Canyon, not far from the iconic Cedar Breaks National Monument in southern Utah.
The post claims the accumulation is snow, but is it? Some commenters are wondering if a trooper confused it for graupel or hail. We'll let you be the judge:
The caption claims the temperature was 40 degrees when the pictures were taken. Taking that into account, it's unlikely that the accumulation is actually snow.
It's more likely to be graupel or hail. Most Americans have been through their fair share of hail storms, but what is graupel?
Read more about the weather phenomenon in this definition by NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory:
"Graupel are soft, small pellets formed when supercooled water droplets (at a temperature below 32°F) freeze onto a snow crystal, a process called riming. If the riming is particularly intense, the rimed snow crystal can grow to an appreciable size, but remain less than 0.2 inches. Graupel is also called snow pellets or soft hail, as the graupel particles are particularly fragile and generally disintegrate when handled."
Still, it's possible that temps dropped below freezing, a quick flurry of snow fell, and then temps rose again.
As a skier, I'm hoping it's snow, but I'll take whatever I can get. I've long said that snow is snow, but are other things also snow?! Hm. Back to the drawing board.
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