From Snow To Hail, Wyoming’s Unique Winter Weather

Some of the conversations I find myself getting into these days are quite interesting. I remember, as a kid, all the older gentlemen I grew up around having very intense conversations about the weather. When you're a kid, people who are 30 seem old. So, the "older gentlemen" I referred to were probably 50. I guess it's a thing, when you start to approach 50, the weather is your biggest conversation starter.

Well, it happened to me. A 35-minute conversation about the dadgum weather. 

Casper was having an interesting weather day earlier this week. It was windy, rainy, and warmish, with hail falling. It's February, I expect snow to be falling, not hail. Although 2026 has been a weird weather year all around, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised.

The topic of my conversation: What are the names of all of the frozen precipitation that falls from the Wyoming sky?

Yes, that's right, in true old man fashion, 35-minutes of weather talk. I know you're now interested in the outcome of the conversation. Hold on tight, because you're about to be impressed.

How many types of frozen precipitation are there?

According to the NOAA National Severe Storms Lab, there are four different types.

• Snow
  • forms when water vapor turns into ice without going through the liquid stage.
• Graupel
  • soft, small pellets which form when supercooled water droplets freeze onto a snow crystal. They will remain less than 0.2 inches
• Sleet
  • small ice particles that form from freezing water drops. Sleet is only common during the winter, when snow melts as it falls and freezes into sleet before hitting the ground. It's also known as ice pellets.
• Hail
  • frozen precipitation that can grow into many different sizes. Hailstones begin as graupel or sleet, then get bigger. It's considered hail when it's larger than 0.2 inches.