I had to go looking to see if there was a distinction. There is!
Hail is a form of solid precipitation.[1] It is distinct from ice pellets (American English “sleet”), though the two are often confused.[2] It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone.[3] Ice pellets generally fall in cold weather, while hail growth is greatly inhibited during low surface temperatures.
Unlike other forms of water ice precipitation, such as graupel (which is made of rime ice), ice pellets (which are smaller and translucent), and snow (which consists of tiny, delicately crystalline flakes or needles), hailstones usually measure between 5 mm (0.2 in) and 15 cm (6 in) in diameter.[1] The METAR reporting code for hail 5 mm (0.20 in) or greater is GR, while smaller hailstones and graupel are coded GS.
Hey neighbor’s neighbor! We’re in AZ, I’ve been looking fondly over at NM for a bit.
Love visiting NM, except the mountain pass we have to go through to get there. Absolutely hate that part or we might get over more.
We moved here from a cold state many many moons ago and Phoenix had a lot to offer for jobs. Feel like we shoulda looked harder back then. To poor now to make another move but, we will if we gotta.