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    • Ice called Graupel fell Tuesday, according to NWS
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    Ice called Graupel fell Tuesday, according to NWS

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    If you were paying attention Tuesday afternoon, you may have noticed the clinking of solid precipitation on nearby buildings.

    You’d be forgiven for thinking it was sleet or hail, and in some areas it may be. But according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington, most of the precipitation that fell on Columbus Tuesday was gray.

    What is graupel?

    Graupel forms when supercooled water droplets freeze on snow crystals, creating fragile solid pellets that are less than 0.2 inches in size, according to NOAA.

    Frost levels were low over central Ohio on Tuesday and the atmosphere was unstable, allowing graupel to form, NWS Wilmington meteorologist Matthew Campbell said.

    Graupel is actually not extremely rare and occurs a few times a year, Campbell said.

    What is wet snow and hail?

    Wet snow, on the other hand, is formed when liquid rain freezes. Graupel’s cousin, hail, must be at least 0.5 centimeters in size and consists of frozen water accumulating around an embryo, which can be sleet or graupel.

    Columbus saw 0.3 inches of frozen precipitation Tuesday, a record amount for Oct. 15, according to NWS climate data. It wasn’t just graupel; Sleet, hail and rain also fell from the sky on Tuesday.

    According to Campbell, all frozen precipitation, including graupel, is categorized as snow in the NWS records.

    “Even if there was, say, hail accumulating at the airport in July, that would count as snow,” Campbell said.

    Here’s what to expect from the weather in Columbus for the rest of the week.

    Columbus weather for the week of October 16, 2024

    • Wednesday: It will be mostly sunny with a high near 55.
    • Wednesday evening: Light frost after 3am. Otherwise it will be mostly clear with a low around 33 degrees.
    • Thursday: There is fog before 10 a.m. and frost before 9 a.m. Otherwise, it will be sunny with a high around 61 degrees.
    • Thursday evening: After 5 a.m. there may be local frost. Otherwise it will be clear with a minimum temperature around 35 degrees.
    • Friday: There may be local frost before 9 a.m. Otherwise it will be sunny with a high around 68 degrees.
    • Friday evening: It will be clear with a low around 39.
    • Saturday: It will be sunny with a high near 72 degrees.
    • Saturday evening: It will be clear with a low around 41.
    • Sunday: It will be sunny with a high near 74 degrees.
    • Sunday evening: It will be clear with a low around 44.
    • Monday: It will be sunny with a high around 75 degrees.
    • Monday evening: It will be mostly clear with a low around 47.
    • Tuesday: It will be sunny with a high around 76.

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