Graupel

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/graupel

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific classification?Form of precipitation resulting from riming of snowflakes
2. What is the formation mechanism?Accretion of supercooled water droplets onto falling ice crystals
3. What is graupel and how is it different from snow or hail?Graupel is a soft, tiny snowball that forms when a snowflake collects frozen droplets, making it fluffy and white. It is softer and lighter than hard hail and looks more like a small, opaque pellet.
4. How does graupel form in the clouds?When a snowflake falls through a layer of supercooled water droplets, the droplets freeze on it. This rapid freezing, called riming, builds a layer of rime ice that turns the snowflake into a small, opaque pellet.

Supercooled liquid water: Water existing in a liquid state at temperatures below its freezing point.
Riming: The process by which supercooled water droplets freeze onto an ice particle.
Cloud microphysics: The study of the physical processes that occur within clouds, such as droplet formation and ice crystal growth.