I walked out the door of the hotel that cold morning in Riga in Latvia, hoping to catch a sunrise like I did in Minsk and a sunset such as the one in Helsinki — only to find snow on the ground; and snow was still falling…
Graupel Fell From the Sky in Riga One Morning.
…but a closer look revealed to me something which I do not recall ever seeing before: the precipitation was more like puffy miniature snowballs or pellets of styrofoam rather than snowflakes.
Looking up this weather phenomenon later, I found out that the term for this form of precipitation is called graupel — which is defined by the National Weather Service of the United States as “when supercooled water droplets coat a snowflake” and that “graupel occurs when there is a lot of wind circulation in the cloud (unstable rising air) that causes the snowflake to travel through portions of the cloud with supercooled water droplets.”
I do not agree with the National Weather Service with regard to the definition of graupel as being the “Same as snow pellets or small hail.”
At first, I thought the snow — or graupel — combined with the cold air would ruin the morning…
…until I realized that the streets of Riga were practically deserted — and then I approached the Old Town area.
I then realized how peaceful, serene and picturesque was the city that morning — almost as if I had Latvia all to myself.
The greenery alongside the banks of the Pilsētas Kanāls were instead covered with a soft frozen white blanket.
I reflected upon the reflections of the canal and realized that I was about to have a mellow time exploring at my pace the Old Town area of the city.
Final Boarding Call
The morning — and, ultimately, the day — turned out to be a nice one spent in Riga after all…
…and I had learned of a new — to me, anyway — meteorological term…
All photographs ©2017 by Brian Cohen.
