Snow-like “soft hail” surprises villagers in Kolari in Finnish Lapland

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A snowball fight occurred in Äkäsjokisuu in the municipality of Kolari in Finnish Lapland on Sunday, in spite of temperatures ranging between 16 and 17 degrees Celsius.
      Up to about ten centimetres of white frozen material piled up in an strop about 100 metres long.
     
“I’ve never seen anything like it at this time of the year. My running shoes sank up to the ankles”, said local resident Osmo Kangas.
      Some of the snow-like material could be seen in shaded areas even on Monday.
     
At the Finnish Meteorological Institute meteorologist Leila Konkola says that the substance that came down was probably graupel, or “soft hail” - granules of frozen water resembling Styrofoam balls.
      The graunles are lighter and softer than pure hail, but without the familiar snowflake pattern.


Links:
  Wikipedia: Graupel

Helsingin Sanomat