Guide

Right outsideWeather

Graupel: how to tell snow pellets from sleet and hail

November to April

Graupel, also called snow pellets or soft hail, is a small, soft, white pellet made when a snowflake collects frozen-on droplets of supercooled water. It falls in brief cold-air showers, and it crumbles between your fingers, while sleet and hard hail are solid ice.

Why this time of year

Cold air high above a milder surface sets off scattered snow and graupel showers, and cold-season showery days like that are when pellets fall.

How to notice it

  1. Catch a few pellets on a dark glove or sleeve during a shower and look at the color. Graupel looks opaque and white, while sleet looks clear or translucent.
  2. Press one gently between two fingers. Graupel is soft and crumbles, while hail is hard, dense ice.
  3. Look at the size. Graupel usually stays under about 5 millimeters across; hail is 5 millimeters or bigger.

Try this with kids: Can you squish a pellet with your finger? Does it turn to powder, water, or stay hard?

Phrase to know: “Supercooled water” is liquid water colder than freezing, and it freezes the moment it touches a snowflake.

Sources

  • forecast.weather.govNWS glossary: graupel is the same as snow pellets or small hail.
  • weather.govNWS Houston training glossary: graupel under 5 mm; snow pellets grow by supercooled water accreting on snowflakes; sleet is frozen raindrops; hail is dense ice at least 5 mm.
  • meteor.wisc.eduUW-Madison Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences: riming forms graupel, which resembles small snow clusters or easily breakable hailstones, typically under 5 mm; occurred in early-April snow showers.
  • site.extension.uga.eduUniversity of Georgia Extension (state climatologist): snow pellets roundish and opaque; sleet is frozen rain and looks translucent or transparent.
  • bostonglobe.comBoston Globe quoting an NWS meteorologist (secondary): cold air aloft created snow and graupel showers while surface temperatures were above freezing, central and western Massachusetts, 17 April 2022.
  • nbcboston.comNBC Boston (TV, secondary), 6 Nov 2016: graupel showers in the Boston area, possibly continuing for the Cape and Islands.

Checked against these sources on October 2, 2026.

In the guide for November, December, January, February, March, April

Also worth noticing