Kingston residents were surprised by a unique weather event approximately 3:55pm on Tuesday, Dec. 3. For several minutes, tiny snow pellets called “graupel”, also known as “soft hail”, dropped in a flurry from the sky.
Graupel forms when supercooled water droplets in the atmosphere freeze onto falling snowflakes through a process called riming. This results in small, soft, and somewhat crumbly pellets that resemble tiny snowballs.
The flash storm commenced shortly after we reported the possibility of snow accumulation in Thursday’s forecast. Minutes after the tiny balls fell, they had already melted and disappeared from the roadway, but the precipitation resembling Dippin’ Dots stuck stubbornly to colder surfaces into the evening.
Join the family! 
