SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Californians across the state are encountering winter weather. From the coastlines of Humboldt county to the valley and everywhere in between, snow is being reported. But is it actually snow?
The cold air is turning rain into all types of precipitation. Below 500 feet, hail and graupel is being seen in Northern California. In Sacramento, graupel fell Wednesday afternoon with reports of it in Citrus Heights as well as Folsom.
Graupel starts off as snow but on its way down to the surface, collects supercooled water droplets. This encases the snowflake to look like a combination of snow and hail. The difference is hail is hardened while graupel has a more slushy appearance. Any kind of bounce as opposed to a soft snowflake landing would qualify it as graupel.
Another good way to identify graupel from snow is taking a good look at it’s appearance. Sowflakes have unique and intricate structures. Those details and patterns can be beautiful, but graupel, on the other hand, is not able to hold that structure upon landing. It will have a more ice pellet appearance.
Finally, take a glance at the temperature at the time of potential snowfall. Is it at least near 32°F? Or are temperatures well above? If the answer is the latter, then you're most likely dealing with graupel.
There are circumstances where the temperatures may be slightly above freezing, and the combination of graupel and snow is possible. Scenes like that played out off Highway 50 Wednesday afternoon and early Thursday morning near Folsom, El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park.
Snow and graupel can be hard to distinguish between, but hail, even very small hail, is easier to qualify. They are much more dense and can be squished between your fingers without falling apart. They are essentially little balls of ice.
The lowest elevation snow is expected early Friday morning. A light dusting is possible near Loomis, Penryn and Newcastle off I-80. Highway 50 may see low elevation snow around El Dorado Hills, Cameron Park and Shingle Springs.
Snow above 1,000 feet could see 1 to 6 inches. Elevations between 3,000 to 5,000 feet could see between 1 to 2 feet of snow through Saturday. 1 to 3 feet is expected above 5,000 feet.
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