Graupel!?!?

Today I learned a new word: Graupel.
I have many times seen little snow balls fall out of the sky. They are about the size of BBs. I always called them snow pellets. Today at about 5:00PM small marble size snow balls began falling out of the sky. Lots of them, a full flood of snow balls!!! It was strange. I have never seen so many snowballs; these were not snow pellets, they were snow marbles!
Thus the new word, “graupel”.
I hope I never see them again. But I guess it is better than hail that would have ripped the canvas on the boat.