I can arrange an easy payment plan, Boss . . . i'm flexible.
There are many different kinds of snow. I rather suspect that if one with experience of snow had the opportunity to examine what had ended up on the ground, they could render a reasonable judgment. There is soft, big flake snow which is wet, there is small, granular snow which is wet, there is small granular snow which is dry, there are large, lacey flakes which are (comparatively) dry, there are snow pellets, and ice pellets that might have started as snow, or might turn into snow.
Am i wrong to suggest that the folks at your Weather Bureau might not be very expert in the area of snow?
Setanta wrote:I can arrange an easy payment plan, Boss . . . i'm flexible.
There are many different kinds of snow. I rather suspect that if one with experience of snow had the opportunity to examine what had ended up on the ground, they could render a reasonable judgment. There is soft, big flake snow which is wet, there is small, granular snow which is wet, there is small granular snow which is dry, there are large, lacey flakes which are (comparatively) dry, there are snow pellets, and ice pellets that might have started as snow, or might turn into snow.
Am i wrong to suggest that the folks at your Weather Bureau might not be very expert in the area of snow?
Well, in sidney (sic) they wouldnt know snow from grass. We here in the south of course have rather more experience (comparatively speaking).
This is what it looks out my front window
http://www.mtbuller.com.au/snowReport/img_2_main.jpg (live cam today)
Well, I've never seen it snow in Sydney - and I've lived here all my life, (so far!)
It may well have been show - the light was a funny colour. It didn't happen in my area, though - just a bucket-load of rain, and a few hailstones.
Keep your bridge - we got some of our own to sell!
Where'd ya git all that white rock, DP? I'll bet that would look really purty if it was to snow on it . . .
Somebody already tried to sell me that damned opera house, Kitty Cat, you can keep 'er . . .
soft hail or...
it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Snow is a type of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. The process of precipitation is called snowfall.
Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure. The METAR code for snow is SN.
Hail is a form of precipitation which consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice (hailstones). Hailstones usually consist mostly of water ice and measure between 5 and 150 millimeters in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms.[1] Hail is only produced by cumulonimbi (thunderclouds), usually at the front of the storm system, and is composed of transparent ice or alternating layers of transparent and translucent ice at least 1 mm thick. The METAR code for hail 5 mm or greater in diameter is GR, while smaller hailstones and graupel are coded GS. Unlike ice pellets, they are layered and can be irregular and clumped together.
That ain't no kinda answer, Miss Wabbit. Whose side are ya comin' down on, the snow crowd, er the "soft hail" crowd?
Setanta wrote:That ain't no kinda answer, Miss Wabbit. Whose side are ya comin' down on, the snow crowd, er the "soft hail" crowd?
If the Bureau says it was soft hail, I'm with them.
I don't know from snow....only ever seed it but the once...and I was driving a goddam government car, and rushing from appointment to appointment, so I couldn't even stop and play in it!!!
They ain't no sucha thing as "soft hail." Yer weather bureau boys been sunbathin' under the ozone hole once't too often . . .
METEOROLOGIST JEFF HABY
This webpage describes the different types of precipitation and explains how they form. METAR and other frequently used abbreviations for each precipitation type are given.
1. Rain (R, RA)- Rain is liquid precipitation that reaches the surface in the form of drops that are greater than 0.5 millimeters in diameter. The intensity of rain is determined by the accumulation over a given time. Categories of rain are light, moderate and heavy.
2. Snow (SN, SNW, S)- Snow is an aggregate of ice crystals that form into flakes. Snow forms at temperatures below freezing. For snow to reach the earth's surface the entire temperature profile in the troposphere needs to be at or below freezing. It can be slightly above freezing in some layers if the layer is not warm or deep enough the melt the snow flakes much. The intensity of snow is determined by the accumulation over a given time. Categories of snow are light, moderate and heavy.
3. Snow Pellets (GS)- A snow pellet is precipitation that grows by supercooled water accreting on ice crystals or snow flakes. Snow pellets can also occur when a snowflake melts about half way then refreezes as it falls. Snow pellets have characteristics of hail, sleet and snow. With sleet (ice pellets), the snowflake almost completely melts before refreezing thus sleet has a hard ice appearance. Soft hail grows in the same way snow pellets can grow and that is ice crystals and supercooled water accreting on the surface. Snow pellets will crush and break apart when pressed. They can bounce off objects like sleet does. Snow pellets have a whiter appearance than sleet. Snow pellets have small air pockets embedded within their structure and have visual remnants of ice crystals unlike sleet. Snow pellets are typically a couple to several millimeters in size.
4. Snow Grains (SG)- Snow grains are small grains of ice. They do not produce much accumulation and are the solid equivalent to drizzle.
5. Ice Crystals (IC)- Also called diamond dust. They are small ice crystals that float with the wind.
6. Sleet / Ice Pellets (PE, PL, IP, SLT)- Sleet (Ice Pellets) are frozen raindrops that strike the earth's surface. In a sleet situation the precipitation aloft when it is first generated will be snow. The snow falls through a layer that is a little above freezing and the snow partially melts. If the snow completely melts it will be more likely to reach the earth's surface as supercooled water instead of sleet. If the snow partially melts there will still be ice within the falling drop for water to freeze on when the drop falls into a subfreezing layer. The lowest layer of the troposphere will be below freezing in a sleet situation and deep enough to freeze drops completely. The lower boundary layer can be above freezing and sleet occur if the sleet does not have time to melt before reaching the surface.
7. Hail (GR, A)- Hail is dense precipitation ice that is that least 5 millimeters in diameter. It forms due to ice crystals and supercooled water that freeze or stick to the embryo hail stone. Soft hail is more white and less dense since it has air bubbles. Soft hail occurs when hail grows at a temperature below freezing by ice crystals and small supercooled water and cloud droplets merging onto the hail. Hard hail occurs when liquid water drops freeze on the outer edges of the hailstone after the outer edge is above freezing. The freezing of supercooled water releases latent heat and this can result in the outer edge of the hail stone warming above freezing. Then the water refreezes creating solid ice. Hail will commonly have soft ice and hard ice layers when it is sliced open.
8. Graupel (GS)- Graupel forms in the same way as hail except the diameter is less than 5 millimeters. It usually grows by soft hail processes.
9. Drizzle (DZ, L)- Drizzle is liquid precipitation that reaches the surface in the form of drops that are less than 0.5 millimeters in diameter.
10. Freezing Drizzle (FZDZ, ZL)- Freezing Drizzle is liquid precipitation that reaches the surface in the form of drops that are less than 0.5 millimeters in diameter. The drops then freeze on the earth's surface.
11. Freezing Rain (FZRA, ZR)- Freezing Rain is liquid precipitation that reaches the surface in the form of drops that are greater than 0.5 millimeters in diameter. The drops then freeze on the earth's surface.
12. Freezing Fog (FZFG)- Freezing fog is a fog composed of supercooled water drops. These drops freeze just after they wet the earth's surface.
13. Mixed Precipitation (MXD PCPN)- The combination of two or more winter precipitation types occurring at the same time or over a period of time at the same place.
Graupel = soft hail
But...the thlot pickens:
"soft hail—Same as snow pellets"
which led me to:
"snow pellets—(Also called soft hail, graupel, tapioca snow.) Precipitation consisting of white, opaque, approximately round (sometimes conical) ice particles having a snowlike structure, and about 2–5 mm in diameter.
Snow pellets are crisp and easily crushed, differing in this respect from snow grains. They rebound when they fall on a hard surface and often break up. In most cases, snow pellets fall in shower form, often before or together with snow, and chiefly on occasions when the surface temperature is at or slightly below 0°C (32°F). It is formed as a result of accretion of supercooled droplets collected on what is initially a falling ice crystal (probably of the spatial aggregate type)."
which is a pain in the bum.
And finally this:
Encyclopedia > Soft hail
Soft hail is a form of precipitation where snow flakes partially melt on falling into warmer air forming sleet with the loss of their flake structure, and then re-freeze on passing back into colder air to form amorphous or semi-crystalline pellets of snow. The pellets are typically 1-5 mm in diameter. It is distinct from true hail in that it is not built up from concentric layers of solid ice, usually retains the tiny air pockets held in the original snowflake, making it white and soft compared to hail.
It commonly forms in clouds on cold fronts where the high air turbulence increases the possibility of snowflakes passing through successive currents of warmer and colder air on descent.
The snow produced by snow cannons closely resembles soft hail.
The thing's a chimera!
That there chimera . . . is that another one a them nasty critters y'all got down there that'll kill ya in a heartbeat when you ain't expectin' it?
So, that there soft hail in Sidney (DP loves it when i spell it that way), that really was snow, but they just couldn't bring themselves to admit it, huh?
Setanta wrote:That there chimera . . . is that another one a them nasty critters y'all got down there that'll kill ya in a heartbeat when you ain't expectin' it?
So, that there soft hail in Sidney (DP loves it when i spell it that way), that really was snow, but they just couldn't bring themselves to admit it, huh?
Allus knew dogs couldn't really read.
Don't be tryin' none a that Cunning Coney lawyer shite on me . . . if it was snow when it started down, it's snow when it hits the ground.
Setanta wrote:Don't be tryin' none a that Cunning Coney lawyer shite on me . . . if it was snow when it started down, it's snow when it hits the ground.
So.....if it's snow when it starts down and melts on the way, and falls as water, is it still snow?
Or do we get to call that rain?
Setanta wrote:We call that slush . . .
Not when it's rain you don't.
This'll end in tears.
Yes, its all good fun till someone loses an eye.
