Thunderbird12
(Meteorologist)
Sun Sep 02 2007 08:11 PM
Re: Watching Category 4 Hurricane Felix and Area off Georgia

Sounds like the plane took a major beating during the recent center fix:

BECAUSE OF THE EXTREME TURBULENCE AND GROUPEL [sic] THAT THE AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED...THE MISSION IS BEING
ABORTED AND THE AIRCRAFT IS RETURNING TO ST. CROIX.

Graupel are small frozen water droplets, like small hail stones. Flying through 160 knot-driven small hail stones would be a pretty stressful experience, for both the plane and for the people on board.


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