Very seldom do we come across English words that we legitimately have never heard of before—let alone
two. However, this is the Red Sox we cover here at
FenwayNation—so we're never surprised about
anything. In researching today's weather forecast for
Game One of the
114th World Series, we came across this from the National Weather Service:
"Pretty potent storm system will traverse our region today. Do not be surprised to see numerous showers, some of these heavy w/ rumbles of thunder & possibly even some graupel. Going to be watching for weather @ early afternoon hours." Graupel!??! Turns out that this term is defined as:
"soft hail or snow pellets... precipitation that forms when supercooled water droplets are collected and freeze on falling snowflakes, forming 2–5 mm (0.08–0.20 in) balls of rime." Balls of what? Rime? That's
two words in one forecast that we've never seen before. Apparently rime is defined as: "
frost formed on cold objects by the rapid freezing of water vapor in cloud or fog." Who knew? So, folks headed to the game at Fenway tonight better be prepared for
both graupel and rime—which we
think means they should bring an umbrella and a parka.
