'Graupeling' with the language of spring.

• Author: Barnes, George
• Position: Local

Byline: George Barnes

There must be some sort of medical condition to describe this, but it seems many people are desperately looking for something amusing they can share about weather.

I offer you graupel (rhymes with apple).

On Tuesday, the National Weather Service offered up the word on Twitter to describe some of the wind-driven white stuff falling from the sky. Eric Fisher, CBS Boston's chief meteorologist, referred to it as "hail's awkward cousin,'' which I think is an apt description. Try shouting out "Hail!'' The response is likely to be "Hail!'' It makes you sound like a Roman senator. Then shout out, "Graupel!'' People will rush to prescribe you medication.

Graupel, according to the NWS's list of weather terms, is small pellets of ice created when super-cooled water droplets coat, or rime, a snowflake. The pellets are cloudy white, not clear like sleet, and often mistaken for hail. It falls apart more easily than hail, something those who have an awkward cousin or two might understand.

Rime is not the opposite of reason, but tiny balls of ice that form when tiny drops of water (usually not precipitation) freeze on contact with the surface, again according to the NWS.

The National Weather Service lists about 720 weather terms that include everything from ablation to Zulu time. Many of the terms are endearing, such as anvil zits, cloud streets, horse latitudes, knuckles, mamma clouds, steam clouds and, of course, graupel.

I found myself reading about graupel, not because I was looking to write about weather words, but because I thought it was a possible sign of spring. After a winter in which terms such as blizzard, snow load, snow depths and snow advisories dominated, it was refreshing to see something different. Hail, and graupel, fall even in the summer.

After hearing about graupel, I started looking up spring weather words. Spring started Friday, at least on the calendar.

The first thing I stumbled on was the weather service's 51-page list of terms. I also found a list on www.words-to-use.com that lightened my heart. The...