Definition
A form of frozen precipitation consisting of small, white, opaque ice particles, generally round or conical in shape and roughly 2 to 5 millimeters in diameter. Snow pellets form when supercooled water droplets freeze onto a snowflake, building up a soft, crumbly coating of rime ice. They are brittle, crush easily underfoot, and often bounce when they hit a hard surface.
Plain English
Small, soft white balls of ice that fall from the sky. They are bigger than typical snow grains but softer and more crumbly than hail, and they tend to bounce when they land.
Context Anchor
Pilots may see snow pellets in aviation weather reports, forecasts, or while checking current precipitation before takeoff or landing.
Derivation
Pellet' comes from the Old French 'pelote', meaning a small ball. The term captures the shape: small rounded balls, distinguishing them from flat snowflakes or hard hailstones.
Why Pilots Care
Snow pellets can reduce visibility and affect runway braking action, and they signal the presence of supercooled water that may cause airframe icing.
Grounding Statement
Picture small white ice grains tapping the windshield and bouncing on the ramp instead of drifting down like normal snowflakes.
Intuition Check
Do not assume snow pellets are just ordinary snowflakes packed together. In aviation weather, snow pellets are small grains of ice with their own reporting meaning.
Example Sentence 1
The METAR reported snow pellets, so the pilot expected unstable air and possible icing during the climb.
Example Sentence 2
Snow pellets falling during the flight indicated a change in the weather pattern.