Graupeling with Spring
No, that’s not a spelling error in the blog title. Graupel—it’s the word of the week compliments of the Capital Weather Gang and it is what has been blowing about in winter’s final exhale. Maybe I should say we’ve been grappling with graupel. But what the heck is it? Graupel (a German word) is the official meteorological term for soft hail, corn snow, hominy snow, or snow pellets. It is 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 crisp, opaque rime (more weather forecaster speak for frost formed on cold objects by the rapid freezing of water vapor in cloud or fog).
There aren’t many terms for really nice weather and beautiful days, but when Mother Nature hurls her nastiness at us, you can bet there’s a term for it that doesn’t involve what some consider bad language.
Farmers and market vendors have become intimate with such terminology over the years, often once we’ve experienced such an event. I’d never heard of a derecho until the Saturday morning I showed up at the Pike market only to find the entire neighborhood covered in leaves and branches. Man, it must have been some storm, I thought to myself. The Starbucks was slammed with people who couldn’t make coffee because power was out in much of the area and would be for several days. That day was the only market I have been completely skunked—not a single sale. No one was about to buy anything perishable let alone anything that needed to be cooked.
Two terms which are at the opposite ends of the weather spectrum can equally strike fear and frustration into both customers and vendors alike—heat dome and polar vortex. Let’s hope we don’t hear either any time soon.
For folks who make their living working outside, we have to be in tune with the weather if we’re going to not be miserable. Having worked on the ocean for many years before farming, I tuned into NOAA radio and later, their online reports on a daily basis so I’d know what I was up against. I thought it was pretty darn cool I could pull up individual buoy reports on demand instead of waiting for my little radio cube to go through the list. Now I’m spoiled beyond belief with multiple weather apps at my fingers collecting real-time data from satellites, radar, cell towers, cameras, and weather stations. My phone chirps when there is impending precipitation and squawks with a claxon from the National Weather Service when dangerous conditions approach. It’s too bad those involved in the 60 vehicle pileup on Interstate 81 last week didn’t pay attention to the weather. When your favorite farmers fail to show up for market after a foreboding forecast that’s because we don’t want to end up in that type of situation.
I’ve stood out at market in a variety of weather conditions over the years, but extreme weather is no joke. Standing under a metal frame during an electrical storm isn’t very wise, but for those storms it’s usually the high winds and driving rains that force us to pack up and bug out. Severe thunderstorms can also spawn hail, flooding an tornados, which will also immediately shut down a market.
Even when we drop our tents and run, there’s a pretty good chance we’ll be driving home in a mess. I’ve pulled over on the highways a few times when visibility has gone to zero and waited for the storm to pass. Fortunately, the snow squalls last Sunday on the drive home weren’t too bad. Occasionally I’ve had to take a hard look at impending conditions and call off a day or two ahead of the market. This is where it’s a good idea to subscribe to your usual vendors’ email list or follow them on their flavor of social media for a heads up when conditions warrant a day off.
Last week as I was setting out round bales on Saturday while being pelted with graupel it crossed my mind that market the following day could be equally miserable (and it was), but I’m resigned that there are customers out there who depend on their farmers showing up at market unless weather conditions are downright treacherous. But a few cold blasts of what looked like polystyrene packing materials, no worries, we’ll be there.
If there are any weather app developers out there reading this, I’m putting in my request for an alert that makes a happy sound alerting me to a fantastic day of lovely weather. Hopefully we’ll get one this Sunday.