This Fell From the Sky in Buffalo and Nobody Has Ever Heard of It
The weather was less than ideal in Western New York on Wednesday. Actually, it's been downright miserable since Monday morning.
Temperatures haven't escaped the 40's and we have seen lows in the 30's across Western New York this week. We have one more bad day ahead of us, Thursday, before the weather turns for the better this weekend.
Snow has been the story for the southern tier, as many parts of that region in Western New York has seen accumulating snowfall since early Tuesday morning.
As for the City of Buffalo, it's been mostly rain with some hail mixing in there as well. That was the story on Tuesday, but on Wednesday, there was a different substance falling from the sky that had many people in Buffalo wondering "what in the world is this stuff?"
The National Weather Service announced that what was falling from the sky in Buffalo on Wednesday looked like hail, it also looked like slushy snow, but it's actually called "graupel"...
Graupel is basically a cross between hail and snow; kind of a softer type of hail.
It was certainly accumulating on the roadways in downtown Buffalo, were our offices are located, but none of us could decipher whether it was snow or hail. It was technically neither...it was graupel!
Be careful on the roadways this afternoon and these conditions will cause slicky, icy driving that makes it important to take it slow and give yourself some extra time.