April 07--A not-quite-snow-but-not-quite-hail fell in fits and spurts across the Chicago area Thursday and more was expected Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
It's known as graupel.
"We call it kind of a soft hail, it's got almost the feeling of a snow or almost a Styrofoam," said Matt Friedlein, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "Showers out there today are similar to a couple times in the past week, last Friday and Saturday too, that we had some of these produce graupel.
"Some with snow, some with rain, and some with that soft hail, graupel, today. It's scattered across the Chicago area. Most parts are seeing this off and on through midafternoon. When it starts it doesn't last very long, probably no more than five minutes," Friedlein said. "It's environment that favors that, within the clouds, and they're not necessarily deep enough for snow or true hail and it needs a kind of specific environment."
The system over Chicago will pass by Thursday night, but another will move in around 3 a.m. or so, and the graupel may resume.
Temperatures on Thursday and Friday should top out in the low 40s, with lows hovering around freezing, Friedlein said.
