PORTLAND, Maine — After several inside-runner storm tracks that left Maine's coastline battered and bruised, record-warm temperatures, and a snow drought, one would think Mother Nature was done with her surprises after an unusual winter.
Nope.
On the last weekend of the season, hail covered lawns in Maine's midcoast region as thunderstorms moved through Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, it was snowing not very far north in The County and southern Maine made a run for 60 degrees.
But was it hail that covered some Mainer’s lawns or was it really graupel? Let’s discuss.
The American Meteorological Society's definition of graupel states:
"Heavily rimed snow particles, often called snow pellets; often indistinguishable from very small soft hail except for the size convention that hail must have a diameter greater than 5 mm. Sometimes distinguished by shape into conical, hexagonal, and lump (irregular) graupel."
The American Meteorological Society's definition of hail states:
"Precipitation in the form of balls or irregular lumps of ice, always produced by convective clouds, nearly always cumulonimbus.
An individual unit of hail is called a hailstone. By convention, hail has a diameter of 5 mm or more, while smaller particles of similar origin, formerly called small hail, may be classed as either ice pellets or snow pellets. Thunderstorms that are characterized by strong updrafts, large liquid water contents, large cloud-drop sizes, and great vertical height are favorable to hail formation."
Both pictures above show hail while a cluster of thunderstorms moved through Maine's midcoast region this afternoon.
You can tell it's hail and not graupel because of the glassy, opaque surface of the hail stones. If it was graupel, the radar reflectivity would be lighter, and the pictures would show more of a flakey and soft consistency.
There were reports of graupel in Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough, Randolph, and Limington.
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